Judges 18:2

_AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN SENT OF THEIR FAMILY FIVE MEN FROM THEIR COASTS, MEN OF VALOUR, 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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

Verse Judges 18:2. _FIVE MEN - MEN OF VALOUR_] The Hebrew word חיל _chayil_ has been applied to _personal prowess_, to _mental energy_, and to _earthly possessions_. They sent those in whose courage, judgment, and prudence, they could safely confide....

This identity of locality with the scene of Samson’s birth and death indicates that both narratives are drawn from the same source, probably the annals of the tribe of Dan....

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 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, AND TO SEARCH IT; these men were sent from the borders of the tribe, the extreme parts of it, as the word may signify, where perhaps they were the most pressed and overcrowded: Zorah and Eshtaol are particularly mentioned, and were the first cities in their lot, and were the coast of their inheritance, Joshua 19:41 some take the phrase rendered "from their coasts" to signify persons of extreme meanness, men of the lowest class among them; but the above mentioned writers interpret it to a quite contrary sense, by "Katzinim", princes, such as Moses sent to spy the land; and this bet

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

THE DANITE SCOUTS AT THE HOUSE OF MICAH. This chapter is of great value as an illustration of the mode in which an Israelitish tribe found a settlement in the country. We are taken back almost to the time of the Conquest. On the difficulty which the Danites had in taking possession of the territory first allotted to them see Judges 1:34. Some of them determined to seek their fortune in fresh fields. Their five scouts passed the house of Micah on the way north. How they knew the Levite's voice we are not told. Either he was an old acquaintance, or the words mean that they heard a voice intoning, which they knew to be a Levite's. Seizing their opportunity, they bade him ask counsel of God for them, and obtained a gratifying response....

CHILDREN. sons. COASTS. borders. MEN OF VALOUR. sons of valour. MOUNT. hill country of....

The repetitions in this verse (_of their family, of their whole number; five, men, men_of valour; to _search_it, _search_the land) point to a combination of the two narratives, of which the beginning can be traced in ch. 17....

_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