Judges 18:15

_AND THEY WENT UP, AND PITCHED IN KIRJATH-JE'ARIM, IN JUDAH: WHEREFORE THEY CALLED THAT PLACE MAHANEHDAN UNTO THIS DAY: BEHOLD, IT IS BEHIND KIRJATH-JE'ARIM._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 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 probably next to that in which the images, and oracle were; and they made up to the young man's apartment, rather than to Micah's, because the above things were under his care: AND SALUTED HIM; asked him of his welfare in a kind and obliging manner, the rather to ingratiate themselves unto him....

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)....

The repetition of identical phrases leads us to suspect that the text has been encumbered by glosses. To some extent, also, the confusion may be due to the double narrative; note _the young Levite_in Judges 18:15 and _the priest_in Judges 18:17; but other criteria fail us, and any clear separation of sources is impossible. The temptation to gloss the passage was no doubt encouraged by the inevitable, but rather clumsy, repetition of defining clauses, such as _an ephod and teraphim, the six hundred men, the spies_etc. Thus Judges 18:16 seems to be wholly an addition; in Judges 18:17 _came in thither … molten image_is simply a doub

_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....

LIFE WITHOUT LAW JUDGES _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 18 V1 At that time, *Israel’s people had no king. Dan’s *tribe were looking for a place where they might live. They had not yet received any area that was their own among *Israel’s *tribes. V2 So Dan’s *tribe sent out 5 fighting men from Zorah and Eshtaol. They were trying to get secret information about the country. They wanted to discover what it was like. These men acted for all their families. The families had told them to discover what the land was like. The men came to the hilly country where Ephraim’s *tribe lived. And they spent the night at Micah’s house. V3 While they were near Micah’s house, they recognised someone’s voice. It was the voice of the young man from Levi’s *tribe. They went over to him. They asked him, ‘Who brought yo

(15-18) In these verses we have a graphic description of the whole nefarious proceeding. The five spies, knowing Jonathan, salute him, and inveigle him to the entrance of the court to talk to their six hundred companions. While the chiefs of this little army detain him in conversation, without any show of violence the five slip away unobserved to the _alîyah,_ or upper room, which serves as the chapel, and steal all the essentials of the worship — namely, (1) the ephod; (2) the teraphim; (3) the graven image; (4) the molten image. It is true that in Judges 18:20 the _massecah_ is not mentioned; but it may be regarded as belonging to the _pesel._ It is only when he sees them in actual possession of these that Jonathan asks the alarmed question, “What do ye?”...