After the story of Shimshon and Delilah and the sum of 1100 shekels it goes onto the story of Micah and the 1100 shekels he stole from his mother.
Could the mother of Micah whose name is not mentioned be Delilah?
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1related discussion jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/…– rosendsApr 28, 2015 at 20:39
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Wow, thank you! I wasn't sure what came first but this definitely answers my question of Shimson and of course Delilah not being Micahs mother. I always thought Shimshon came before but now seeing this i guess I was mistaken. I was almost certain that if Shimson did not go after his eyes and heart he would be there to save his tribe from the Philistines and then Dan would never of had to attack Laish for land.– TheTribeOfJudahApr 28, 2015 at 20:44
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@Danno - That's a lot of excellent information that you just shared - you should put it in answer!– Shimon bMApr 28, 2015 at 22:00
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@ShimonbM call it my own craziness, but I don't like presenting as an answer when I would simply be cutting and pasting, not adding any of my own info, and not even fully vetting the site for accuracy.– rosendsApr 28, 2015 at 22:25
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1Micah was a baby at the time of the Exodus and Moshe saved him. So he was 40 years old at the time of Joshua and the story happened just after then. The Levi who administered was Moshe's grandson.– CashCowApr 29, 2015 at 10:26
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2 Answers
No.The stories in Shoftim are mostly not chronological. And Rashi points out (on his commentary there) that Micha lived in the beginning of the Shoftim era:
"ויהי איש מהר אפרים" - אף על פי שנכתבו שתי פרשיות הללו בסוף הספר של מיכה ושל פלגש בגבעה בתחלת השופטים היה בימי עתניאל בן קנז שנאמר (לקמן יח לא) וישימו להם את פסל מיכה וגו' כל ימי היות בית אלהים בשילה למדנו שכל ימי שילה היה דמות של מיכה ובפלגש בגבעה נאמר על יבוס שבירושלים (שם יט יב) לא נסור אל עיר עובדי כוכבים למדנו שעדיין לא כבשו את ירושלים
As to why these two stories (Shimshon and Micha) are put one after the other, Rashi explains that it is due to the similarity of the stories, in which the same amount of money causes a lot of trouble:
"הקדש הקדשתי את הכסף מידי לבני" - קבלתי עלי למסרו מידי לידך לשם דמות ומסכה תנהו לי עתה ומידי אני אשיבנו אליך יש אומרים שהאשה הזאת היא דלילה לפי שכתוב (לעיל טז ה) אלף ומאה כסף וטעות הוא בידם שהרבה שנים קדם מיכה לשמשון אך הפרשיות נסמכו על הכסף הרע ששוה כאן וכאן וכסף של פורענות היו שניהם
Though I myself agree with @yechezkel that the two women are not the same, I would like to note that two sources that I found do state this:
- The Tosefta to the Targum of Judges1 17:2 writes:
"דיהבו ליך פלישתאי חלף דשדלת ית שמשון וחוי ליך במא חיליה סגי"
Translation: "That the Plishtim brought you [Micha's mother] in return for your having enticed Shimshon to tell you what makes his power is great."2
The view of the Targum is also mentioned in Rabbi Kanievsky's kuntress "Lemichseh Atik", pg. 36 and in the name of "Chazal" in Ish Leshivto, 13:22 by Rabbi Avraham Remer.
- Pseudo-Philo in Liber Antiquitatum wrote that Micha's mother was called "Dedilah", and according to Professor Eli Yasif in his edition of the Chronicles of Yerachmiel, pg. 212, footnote 102, it's possible that this is a scribal error and originally the text read "Delilah".
1 Part of a collection of heavily-midrashic targum manuscripts by unknown authors.
2 Thank you to @N.T. and @Meir for assistance with the translation.
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@N.T. Thank you, I'll correct that later. The Toseftot, from what I've gathered, is the collective name for a group of independant targum manuscripts written by various anonymous authors. Some were titled with the word tosefta in their name, hence the collective title.– Harel13Aug 2, 2021 at 6:07
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1@TheTribeOfJudah definitely. Several commentators make the connection. One (Rashi) was brought by yechezkel in his answer. Even the Ish Leshivto book which I mentioned concludes that even if Delilah wasn't Micha's mother, she was certainly his spiritual mother.– Harel13Aug 3, 2021 at 5:54
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1@TheTribeOfJudah as a start, check the commentators brought by Sefaria.– Harel13Aug 4, 2021 at 14:43