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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Judges 18:1 - 18:12
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The Danites Seek a New Location
v. 1. In those days there was no king in Israel, this fact being noted here again to explain the behavior of the Danites and to register the author's disapproval of their action; and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. Dan had indeed been given an allotment, in Northern Philistia, in the foothills and in the plain along the Mediterranean, Jos_19:40-48, but their territory had been insufficient for their needs from the beginning, chiefly because they could not summon the necessary courage and warlike valor to force out the heathen inhabitants of that country.
v. 2. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men specially qualified for that purpose, selected from their whole tribe, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, two cities in the eastern part of their territory, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land, namely, for a place where they might settle without great trouble; who when they came to Mount Ephraim, on that great highway from the south to the north, to the house of Micah, they lodged there, in some part of Micah's great establishment.
v. 3. When they were by the house of Micah, probably on the next morning, when they passed the apartments of the family, they knew the voice of the young man, the Levite, they recognized the dialect of his speech, which differed from that of the Ephraimites, or they heard the sound of the bells on his priestly garments; and they turned in thither, their curiosity having been aroused, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? And what makest thou in this place? And what hast thou here? The situation seemed so strange to them that they demanded a detailed explanation.
v. 4. And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, giving an outline of his history, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.
v. 5. And they, also so weak in their religious convictions and knowledge that they found no fault with the man for his action, said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous; the Levite's oracle was to give them information concerning the probable success of their undertaking.
v. 6. And the priest, after having made a great show with his copy of the priest's ephod and his teraphim, said unto them, Go in peace; before the Lord is your way wherein ye go. The answer, "Your way is in the sight of Jehovah," was thoroughly ambiguous, but they chose to explain it in a manner favorable to their enterprise, as the Levite intended them to do.
v. 7. Then the five men departed, continuing their scouting expedition, and came to Laish, in the extreme northern part of Canaan, east of the headwaters of Jordan, and saw the people that were therein, who belonged to the Canaanitish tribes of Northern Palestine, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, to whom they were probably related, quiet and secure, concerned chiefly with commercial interests and not given to warlike enterprises; and there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in any thing, no hereditary ruler to oppress them in any respect, no conqueror, no tyrant, bothered them; and they were far from the Zidonians, their city may have been a colony of Zidon, but they were so far from the coast of the Mediterranean that assistance from there could hardly be expected, and had no business with any man, they had entered neither into an offensive nor a defensive alliance with any of the neighboring cities. They hurt no man, and therefore did not expect to be hurt by any one, although they belonged to the nations whom the children of Israel had been commanded to exterminate.
v. 8. And they, the spies, came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol, they returned with their report; and their brethren said unto them, What say ye?
v. 9. And they said, Arise, that ye may go up against them; for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good; and are ye still? The Danites were sitting there inactive, while they had such a fine opportunity to gain this city. Be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.
v. 10. When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, living in careless security, and therefore easily overcome, and to a large land, with room for expansion on all sides; for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth, with all the wealth and attractiveness which distinguished the rest of Canaan.
v. 11. And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointed with weapons of war, fully armed for battle, each man with his family.
v. 12. And they went up, and pitched in Kirjath-jearim, in Judah, on the northern boundary of Judah, wherefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan (camp of Dan) unto this day; behold, it is behind Kirjath-jearim. An expedition for the purpose of planting a colony in this manner was at that time such an extraordinary event that the name of the camp was ever afterward remembered. But the entire undertaking was a self-appointed task on the part of Dan and was not commanded by God. It is God's will that we remain in our station and take its burdens upon us, until He Himself shows us another way. Then His mercy and blessings will be with us.