Judges 18:4 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

Judges 18:4

2 So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from ^aZorah and Eshtaol, ^bto spy out the land and search it. They said to them, “Go, search the land.” So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the ^chouse of Micah, and lodged there.

3 While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?”

4 He said to them, “Thus and so Micah did for me. He has ^ahired me, and I have become his priest.”

5 So they said to him, “Please ^ainquire of ^bGod, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous.”

6 And the priest said to them, ^a“Go in peace. The presence of the Lord be with you on your way.”

7 So the five men departed and went to ^aLaish. They saw the people who were there, ^bhow they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the ^cSidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.

8 Then the spies came back to their brethren at ^aZorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, “What is your report?”

9 So they said, ^a“Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good. Would you ^bdo nothing? Do not hesitate to go, and enter to possess the land.

10 When you go, you will come to a ^asecure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, ^ba place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Judges 18:1-6

THE DANITES SEEK OUT AN INHERITANCE. (Jdg. 18:1-26)

In those days . . . the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in—The Danites had a territory assigned them as well as the other tribes. But either through indolence, or a lack of energy, they did not acquire the full possession of their allotment, but suffered a considerable portion of it to be wrested out of their hands by the encroachments of their powerful neighbors, the Philistines. In consequence, being straitened for room, a considerable number resolved on trying to effect a new and additional settlement in a remote part of the land. A small deputation, being despatched to reconnoitre the country, arrived on their progress northward at the residence of Micah. Recognizing his priest as one of their former acquaintances, or perhaps by his provincial dialect, they eagerly enlisted his services in ascertaining the result of their present expedition. His answer, though apparently promising, was delusive, and really as ambiguous as those of the heathen oracles. This application brings out still more clearly and fully than the schism of Micah the woeful degeneracy of the times. The Danites expressed no emotions either of surprise or of indignation at a Levite daring to assume the priestly functions, and at the existence of a rival establishment to that of Shiloh. They were ready to seek, through means of the teraphim, the information that could only be lawfully applied for through the high priest's Urim. Being thus equally erroneous in their views and habits as Micah, they show the low state of religion, and how much superstition prevailed in all parts of the land.

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