Judges 18:11

_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._ There went from thence of the family of the Danites ... six hundred men. This was the collective number of the men who were equipped with arms to carry out this expeditionary enterprise, without including the families and furniture of the emigrants (Judges 18:21). Their journey led them through the territory of Judah, and their first halting-place was "behind," that is, on the west of, Kirjath-jearim, on a spot called afterward 'the camp of Dan.' Prosecuting the northern route, they skirted the base of the Ephraimite hills; and on approaching the neighbourhood of Micah's residence, the spies having given information to the exploring party that a private sanctuary was kept there, the priest of which had rendered them important service whe

Verse Judges 18:11. _SIX HUNDRED MEN_] These were not the whole, for we find they had children, c., Judges 18:21 but these appear to have been six hundred _armed_ men....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 18:1 IN THOSE DAYS, etc. See Judges 17:6. THE TRIBE OF THE DANITES SOUGHT THEM AN INHERITANCE, etc. This does not mean that the whole tribe of Dan were still seeking their inheritance. The bulk of the tribe, as we read in Joshua 19:40-6, did receive their inheritance by lot before the death of Joshua (Joshua 19:49) and Eleazar (Joshua 19:51). But as long as any part of the tribe was not settled, the tribe as such, in its unity, was still seeking a settlement. The land for

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 returned unto: and upon their report, and at their instigation, and by the encouragement they gave, there were SIX HUNDRED MEN APPOINTED WITH WEAPONS OF WAR; that set out armed from the above places, on the expedition to take Laish....

CHAPTER 18 THE DANITE IDOLATRY _ 1. The Danites seek an inheritance (Judges 18:1)_ 2. Their robbery (Judges 18:13) 3. Laish taken and idolatry consummated (Judges 18:27) The history of this chapter is closely linked with the preceding. The tribe of Dan had failed to take the God-given inheritance (Joshua 19:40). “The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley” (Judges 1:34). Then in self-will, entirely disregarding the will of God, they sent out spies to

JUDGES 17-18. This section is the first of two supplements. It explains the origin of the famous shrine at Dan, and the _naî veté_ of its moral and religious ideas proves how ancient it is. In not a few places the text has evidently been tampered with by scribes, who took offence at practices which were from a later point of view irregular. The events in question must have occurred before the time of Deborah (Judges 5:17)....

APPOINTED. girded....

_six hundred men_ Not the whole clan, but only the more enterprising members of it; the rest remained behind in the south. The armed men took their women and children with them (Judges 18:21); altogether the numbers must have reached a thousand....

_Micah and the Danites Judges 18:1-31_ In those days there was no king in Israel: 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. 2 And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there, 3 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here? 4 And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest. 5 And they said un

THE DANITES GO IN QUEST OF AN INHERITANCE. THEY ROB MICAH OF HIS IMAGES, CAPTURE AND SETTLE IN LAISH, AND SET UP IDOL-WORSHIP THERE 1-10. The Danite Spies....