Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Judges 18:22

in Judges 18

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

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.

KJV

And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.

⋯

This verse in Judges 18

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Were gathered together - literally, “were called together.” The men, who were all Micah’s workmen, were probably in the fields with their master at the time of the robbery. When the women saw what was done they gave the alarm, and Micah called the men together as quickly as possible, and pursued the Danites and overtook them.

This site's exposition

they turned and departed

on Judges 18:21-24

The small children, the livestock and the possessions go in front, which Barnes reads as an order of march against the pursuit they expected. Micah's neighbours are called out of the houses near his, so the shrine had a settlement around it. His cry states the difficulty in his own words, “You took the gods I had made”, and Isaiah 44:14-17 and 46:1-2 later argue from that order.

This site's exposition

the men in the houses near Micah’s house

Matthew Henry notes how the pursuers caught up with a column slowed by children and cattle. Micah's men came to argue their case, too few to fight six hundred. Barnes renders the Hebrew as men called together.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And when they were a good way from the house of Micah,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together--The robbers of the chapel being soon detected, a hot pursuit was forthwith commenced by Micah, at the head of a considerable body of followers.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

The bulky cargo. The loads. Anything which moved ponderously, thus making it impossible to move quickly should the local inhabitants pursue them.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Judges 18:21:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

16 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • הֵ֥מָּהthey

    hemahH1992 →553 times

  • הִרְחִ֖יקוּthey had gone far away

    hirchikuH7368 →

  • מִבֵּ֣יתfrom [the] house of

    mibeitH1004 →2046 times

  • מִיכָ֑הMicah

    mikhahH4318 →33 times

  • וְהָאֲנָשִׁ֗יםand the men

    vehaanashimH582 →566 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֤רwho

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • בַּבָּתִּים֙[were] in the houses

    babatimH1004 →2046 times

  • אֲשֶׁר֙which

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • עִם־[were] near

    ʾim-H5973 →1050 times

  • בֵּ֣ית[the] house of

    beitH1004 →2046 times

  • מִיכָ֔הMicah

    mikhahH4318 →33 times

  • נִֽזְעֲק֔וּthey were called together

    nizakuH2199 →73 times

  • וַיַּדְבִּ֖יקוּand they overtook

    vaiyadbikuH1692 →54 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • בְּנֵי־[the] descendants of

    benei-H1121 →4930 times

  • דָֽן׃Dan

    danH1835 →70 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

About Judges

Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 18 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Judges 18 →