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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 18:7 - 18:7
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Thus the five men proceeded to Laish, which is called Leshem in Jos 19:47, and was named Dan after the conquest by the Danites-a place on the central source of the Jordan, the present Tell el Kadi (see at Jos 19:47)-and saw the people of the town dwelling securely after the manner of the Sidonians, who lived by trade and commerce, and did not go out to war. יֹושֶׁבֶת is the predicate to אֶת־הָעָם, and the feminine is to be explained from the fact that the writer had the population before his mind (see Ewald, §174, b.); and the use of the masculine in the following words וּבֹטֵחַ שֹׁקֵט, which are in apposition, is not at variance with this. The connection of יֹושֶׁבֶת with בְּקִרְבָּהּ, which Bertheau revives from the earlier commentators, is opposed to the genius of the Hebrew language. וּבֹטֵחַ שֹׁקֵט, “living quietly and safely there.” וגו וְאֵין־מַכְלִים, “and no one who seized the government to himself did any harm to them in the land.” הִכְלִים, to shame, then to do an injury (1Sa 25:7). דָּבָר מַכְלִים, shaming with regard to a thing, i.e., doing any kind of injury. עֶצֶר, dominion, namely tyrannical rule, from עָצַר, imperio coercere. The rendering “riches” (θησαυρός, lxx), which some give to this word, is founded simply upon a confounding of עֶצֶר with אֹוצָר. יָרַשׁ does not mean “to possess,” but “to take possession of,” and that by force (as in 1Ki 21:18). “And they were far from the Sidonians,” so that in the event of a hostile invasion they could not obtain any assistance from this powerful city. Grotius draws the very probable conclusion from these words, that Laish may have been a colony of the Sidonians. “And they had nothing to do with (other) men,” i.e., they did not live in any close association with the inhabitants of other towns, so as to be able to obtain assistance from any other quarter.