INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 18 This chapter relates how the Danites, being overcrowed in their inheritance, sent out spies to search the land, and see if they could find any proper place to add unto it, and enlarge it, Judges 18:1 who returned and reported Laish as such, and encouraged the Danites to go... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL,.... No supreme magistrate, no judge, for it was before the time of the judges, after the death of Joshua and before Othniel the first judge; this is observed before, Judges 17:6 and here repeated to account for the evil things done by the Danites, their con... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN SENT OF THEIR FAMILY FIVE MEN,.... According to Abarbinel one out of a family, as Moses sent one out of a tribe to spy the land; and so there must be five families concerned in this affair: FROM THEIR COASTS, MEN OF VALOUR FROM ZORAH, AND FROM ESHTAOL, TO SPY OUT THE LAND, A... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY WERE BY THE HOUSE OF MICAH,.... At their inn, which might be next to it, or as they were passing by it: THEY KNEW THE VOICE OF THE YOUNG MAN THE LEVITE; who had been in their country, and they had been in his company and conversation, and they knew the tone of his voice when they heard it... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, THUS AND THUS DEALETH MICAH WITH ME,.... Told them the whole story, how he came to the door of Micah's house, how he inquired of him who he was, and from whence he came, and whither he was going, and then invited him into his house to stay with him: AND HATH HIRED ME; by the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM, ASK COUNSEL, WE PRAY THEE, OF GOD,.... They did not reprove him for assuming the priestly office, when they knew he was a Levite, such was the corruption of those times, and the great depravity and declensions they were fallen into; nor even for the idolatry he was guilty of,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PRIEST SAID TO THEM, GO IN PEACE,.... After he had consulted the oracle, or had asked counsel by the ephod and teraphim; either of his own head, or by a voice he had heard, which Satan might be permitted of God to deliver, he very roundly told them that they might proceed on in their journey... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE FIVE MEN DEPARTED,.... From Mount Ephraim, and Micah's house there: AND CAME TO LAISH; which, according to Bunting s, was one hundred and four miles from Mount Ephraim, and so many he makes it to be from Jerusalem; it lay at the furthest northern border of the land of Canaan, at the foot of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CAME UNTO THEIR BRETHREN TO ZORAH AND ESHTAOL,.... After they had well viewed the city, and made their remarks on the inhabitants of it, the condition and circumstances in which they were, and took notice of the goodness of the land about it, they returned to their brethren that sent them,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAID, ARISE, THAT ME MAY GO UP AGAINST THEM,.... That is, prepare for war, and go up in an hostile manner against the present possessors of the land, not doubting of being masters of it easily: FOR WE HAVE SEEN THE LAND, AND, BEHOLD, IT IS VERY GOOD. Adrichomius x says it was very good pas... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN YE GO, YE SHALL COME TO A PEOPLE SECURE, AND TO A LARGE LAND,.... For though it was but one city, the territories of it were large, and the villages belonging to it might be many; which, with the security of the people, might easily be surprised and taken, not being upon their guard, are the ar... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WENT FROM THENCE OF THE FAMILY OF THE DANITES,.... Or families, the singular being put for the plural; for it can hardly be thought that such a number of men, as after mentioned, went out of one family: OUT OF ZORAH, AND OUT OF ESHTAOL; the two places the spies were sent from, and now had... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY WENT UP AND PITCHED IN KIRJATHJEARIM IN JUDAH,.... Of which place see Joshua 15:9. According to Bunting a it was sixteen miles from Zorah and Eshtaol, and this was their first day's march: WHEREFORE THEY CALLED THE NAME OF THAT PLACE MAHANEHDAN UNTO THIS DAY; which signifies the camp of Da... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY PASSED THENCE UNTO MOUNT EPHRAIM,.... Steering their coast still northward; this, according to Bunting b, was eight miles from Kirjathjearim, or Mahanehdan, in which Micah's house was, for as yet they were not come to it, see Judges 18:15. b Ibid. (Travels of the Patriarchs, c. p. 112.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THEY ANSWERED THE FIVE MEN THAT WENT TO SPY OUT THE COUNTRY OF LAISH,.... That were sent by their brethren, Judges 18:5 and, as it seems from hence, were sent particularly to Laish; they had some notion of that place as proper for them, and therefore sent those men to reconnoitre it; and now as... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY TURNED THITHERWARD,.... It seems as if the house lay a little out of their way, and therefore they turned on one hand to go unto it: AND CAME TO THE HOUSE OF THE YOUNG MAN THE LEVITE, EVEN UNTO THE HOUSE OF MICAH; for the young man's house was only an apartment of Micah's, and lay very pro... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SIX HUNDRED MEN APPOINTED WITH THEIR WEAPONS OF WAR,.... Who were armed men, and marched with their armour about them: WHICH WERE OF THE CHILDREN OF DAN; for no other were concerned in this expedition: stood by the entering of the gate; not of Micah's house, but of the city in which his hou... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE FIVE MEN THAT WENT OUT TO SPY THE LAND WENT UP AND CAME THITHER,.... They first came to Micah's house, and saluted the young man, and after that salutation told him there was such a number of their brethren at the gate of the city, very probably, who would be glad to see him; and the young m... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THESE WENT INTO MICAH'S HOUSE,.... Into that part of it where his gods were; not the six hundred men last mentioned, but the five men who knew the house, and the chapel where the things were: AND FETCHED THE CARVED IMAGE, THE EPHOD, AND THE TERAPHIM, AND THE MOLTEN IMAGE; and brought them away... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM, HOLD THY PEACE,.... Be silent, make no disturbance, be quiet and easy: LAY THY HAND UPON THY MOUTH; as a token of silence; so the Egyptians used to paint Harpocrates, the god of silence, with his fingers pressing his lips: AND GO WITH US; for they wanted him as well as his... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PRIEST'S HEART WAS GLAD,.... He rejoiced that such an opportunity offered; it suited well with his covetous, ambitious, rambling, and unsettled disposition of mind: AND HE TOOK THE EPHOD, AND THE TERAPHIM, AND THE GRAVEN IMAGE; and no doubt the molten image also, out of the hands of the fiv... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THEY TURNED AND DEPARTED,.... Turned from the gate of the city where Micah dwelt, and marched forward to Laish: AND PUT THE LITTLE ONES, AND THE CATTLE, AND THE CARRIAGE, BEFORE THEM; partly for safety from Micah, and his friends and neighbours, and partly that they might not be overdriven: thei... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THEY WERE A GOOD WAY FROM THE HOUSE OF MICAH,.... For it might be some time before Micah knew that his gods were stolen, and his priest was decoyed from him; and it must take up more time still to get his servants and neighbours together to pursue after those that injured him: THE MEN THAT... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CRIED UNTO THE CHILDREN OF DAN,.... When they had got pretty near them, and in their hearing, they called to them aloud, and desired they would stop, having something to say to them: AND THEY TURNED THEIR FACES; that is, the Danites turned and looked at them, and stopped to hear what they... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID, YE HAVE TAKEN AWAY MY GODS THAT I MADE,.... Meaning his graven and molten images, which he had made, or caused to be made, out of the silver his mother gave him, or however had paid for the making of; and though this might be an argument proving his right unto them, it was a very poor o... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN SAID UNTO HIM, LET NOT THY VOICE BE HEARD AMONG US,.... Complaining of us as having done an unjust thing, charging and reproaching us with theft and sacrilege, insisting upon a restoration of the things taken, and abusing with odious names and characters: LEST ANGRY FELLOWS... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN WENT THEIR WAY,.... Went on their way, would not stay to have any further talk with him, as being an impertinent man, and unworthy of their regard, bidding him defiance, and do his worst, having nothing to fear from him: AND WHEN MICAH SAW THEY WERE TOO STRONG FOR HIM; that... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY TOOK THE THINGS WHICH MICAH HAD MADE,.... The ephod, teraphim, and the two images, the Danites took them, or having taken them kept them, and went on with them: AND THE PRIEST WHICH HE HAD; him also they took, and who was willing enough to go with them: AND CAME UNTO LAISH, UNTO A PEOPLE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WAS NO DELIVERER, BECAUSE IT WAS FAR FROM ZIDON,.... Under whose government and protection they seem to have been; and that city being at a distance from them, and the Danites coming upon them suddenly, there was no time to send to them for help, or any to come in to their assistance, and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CALLED THE NAME OF THE CITY DAN,.... The name of their tribe, and to show that though they were at the furthest part of the land northward, and at such a distance from their tribe, which lay to the southwest, yet they belonged to it: AFTER THE NAME OF DAN THEIR FATHER, WHO WAS BORN UNTO IS... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN SET UP THE GRAVEN IMAGE,.... In their new city Dan, and very probably had a house built for it, peculiar to it, in the same place where Jeroboam, in later times, set up one of his golden calves. The Danites having succeeded, according to the oracle in Micah's house, they had... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SET THEM UP MICAH'S GRAVEN IMAGE, WHICH HE MADE,.... Which is repeated for the sake of the time of its continuance next expressed: ALL THE TIME THE HOUSE OF GOD WAS IN SHILOH; which, according to some Jewish writers g, was three hundred and sixty years; that is, so long as the tabernacle w... [ Continue Reading ]