Danite spies find quiet, careless Laish

Judgeschapter 18

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Speaks with:Judges 18×15 Judges 17×6 Judges 19×3 Joshua 19×3 Judges 13×2 Joshua 2×2

Chapter summary

Dan, still without a settled inheritance, sends five men to spy out the land.

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Dan, still without a settled inheritance, sends five men to spy out the land. They lodge with Micah, recognize the Levite's voice, and ask counsel of God; he sends them off with a blessing. They find Laish quiet and secure, far from Sidon and with no dealings with any man, and return for six hundred armed men. On the way the company strips Micah's shrine and recruits the priest with a promotion, better to be priest to a tribe than to one man's house. Micah's protest is pitiful: ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more? Laish is put to the sword and rebuilt as Dan, and the idol stands there for generations.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament.

Context

History · Samuel — Judges overview

A. 1–10 Danite spies find quiet, careless Laish
B. 11–26 Six hundred armed men take Micah's gods
C. 27–31 Laish burned, renamed Dan, an idol enshrined

1 In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of the Danites was looking for territory to occupy. For up to that time they had not come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

2 So the Danites sent out five men from their clans, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. “Go and explore the land,” they told them. The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.

3 And while they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they went over and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?”

4 “Micah has done this and that for me,” he replied, “and he has hired me to be his priest.”

5 Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to determine whether we will have a successful journey.”

6 And the priest told them, “Go in peace. The LORD is watching over your journey.”

7 So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, tranquil and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.

8 When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What did you find?”

9 They answered, “Come on, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Why would you fail to act? Do not hesitate to go there and take possession of the land!

10 When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people and a spacious land, for God has delivered it into your hand. It is a place where nothing on earth is lacking.”

11 So six hundred Danites departed from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.

12 They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. That is why the place west of Kiriath-jearim is called Mahaneh-dan to this day.

13 And from there they traveled to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house.

14 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”

15 So they turned aside there and went to the home of the young Levite, the house of Micah, and greeted him.

16 The six hundred Danites stood at the entrance of the gate, armed with their weapons of war.

17 And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men.

18 When they entered Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

19 “Be quiet,” they told him. “Put your hand over your mouth and come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one person or a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?”

20 So the priest was glad and took the ephod, the household idols, and the graven image, and went with the people.

21 Putting their small children, their livestock, and their possessions in front of them, they turned and departed.

22 After they were some distance from Micah’s house, the men in the houses near Micah’s house mobilized and overtook the Danites.

23 When they called out after them, the Danites turned to face them and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you that you have called out such a company?”

24 He replied, “You took the gods I had made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”

25 The Danites said to him, “Do not raise your voice against us, or angry men will attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”

26 So the Danites went on their way, and Micah turned to go back home, because he saw that they were too strong for him.

27 After they had taken Micah’s idols and his priest, they went to Laish, to a tranquil and unsuspecting people, and they struck them with their swords and burned down the city.

28 There was no one to deliver them, because the city was far from Sidon and had no alliance with anyone; it was in a valley near Beth-rehob. And the Danites rebuilt the city and lived there.

29 They named it Dan, after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city was formerly named Laish.

30 The Danites set up idols for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

31 So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.

Continue: Judges 19 →

Study this chapter

Who

Joshua Deborah Samson Samuel Saul David

What

Israel crosses the Jordan and takes the land, stumbles through the judges, demands a king, and rises to a golden age under David and Solomon: then splits, slides into idolatry, and is carried into exile. Judges overview →

Where

Jericho Jerusalem Samaria Babylon Susa

Kingdom and exiles, mapped →

When

c. 1406–430 BC: conquest, kingdom, exile, and return.

Why

A thousand years of proof that God keeps covenant even when His people don't: and the stage on which the promise narrows to David's line, waiting for David's greater Son. More on History →

Judges 189 verses
- Judges 18:2So the Danites sent out five men from their clans, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. “Go and explore the land,” they told them. The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.
- Judges 18:3And while they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they went over and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?”
- Judges 18:7So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, tranquil and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.
- Judges 18:8When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What did you find?”
- Judges 18:10When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people and a spacious land, for God has delivered it into your hand. It is a place where nothing on earth is lacking.”
- Judges 18:11So six hundred Danites departed from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.
- Read Judges 18 — 3 more there →
Judges 175 verses
- Judges 17:4So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.
- Judges 17:5Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.
- Judges 17:6In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
- Judges 17:10“Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be my father and priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your provisions.” So the Levite went in
- Judges 17:12Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.
- Read Judges 17 →
Judges 192 verses
- Judges 19:1Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
- Judges 19:18The Levite replied, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I am going to the house of the LORD; but no one has taken me into his home,
- Read Judges 19 →
Joshua 191 verse
- Joshua 19:47(Later, when the territory of the Danites was lost to them, they went up and fought against Leshem, captured it, and put it to the sword. So they took possession of Leshem, settled there, and renamed it after their father Dan.)
- Read Joshua 19 →
Judges 131 verse
- Judges 13:25And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
- Read Judges 13 →
Joshua 22 verses
- Joshua 2:1Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
- Joshua 2:23Then the two men started back, came down from the hill country, and crossed the river. So they came to Joshua son of Nun and reported all that had happened to them.
- Read Joshua 2 →
1 Kings 222 verses
- 1 Kings 22:5But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.”
- 1 Kings 22:6So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
- Read 1 Kings 22 →
Numbers 132 verses
- Numbers 13:21So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.
- Numbers 13:30Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”
- Read Numbers 13 →

205 outbound · 139 inbound

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.

The world behind this chapter

Judges 18

When

The migration of Dan · c. 1350 BC, early in the judges era

Where

The road north from Zorah past Micah's house in Ephraim to Laish at the foot of Mount Hermon, at the springs that feed the Jordan

Who first heard it

Israelites who knew the shrine at Dan and where it came from

The history

Dan's allotted land lay on the coastal plain near the Philistines, and the tribe never held it. So six hundred armed men go looking for somewhere easier. Sending five scouts first is standard practice; so is the report they bring back — the people live quietly and securely, far from Sidon, with no ally nearby. That is a target assessment.

Laish sat at the northern springs where the Jordan rises, rich, isolated, and trading with Sidon on the coast eighty miles away over difficult country. Its very safety was its weakness: no defensive alliance, no reason to keep a garrison.

The scouts recognize the Levite by his voice, meaning his accent or the formula he used, and they ask him to inquire of God for them — the ephod and teraphim being tools of consultation. His answer, go in peace, your way is before the LORD, is the kind of blank endorsement a paid chaplain gives.

On the way back the six hundred simply take Micah's shrine and his priest, and the priest's heart was glad, because six hundred men is a bigger congregation than one household. When Micah protests, the answer is a threat: keep talking and angry men will fall on you and your family. The chapter ends with the tribe of Dan setting up the stolen image at their new city, and it stayed there, the text says, until the day of the captivity of the land. Centuries later Jeroboam put one of his golden calves at that same site, and excavation at Tel Dan has uncovered the large open-air platform of that later sanctuary.

What it meant to them

First hearers who knew Dan as a byword for northern idolatry now knew its origin: a stolen idol, a bought priest, and a tribe that took the easy land instead of the assigned one.

It is also a study in how theft looks when a crowd does it. Micah, who made his gods himself, has them stolen and cries, you have taken away my gods — and the reader is meant to hear how absurd that sentence is.

Sources cited

John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel

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