Judges 18:4-8

4 He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, “He has hired me and I am his priest.”

5 Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.”

6 The priest answered them, “Go in peace. Your journey has the LORD’s approval.”

7 So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, at peace and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous.^[a] Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.^[b]

8 When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their fellow Danites asked them, “How did you find things?”

Judges 18:4-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 18

This chapter relates how the Danites, being overcrowed in their inheritance, sent out spies to search the land, and see if they could find any proper place to add unto it, and enlarge it, Jud 18:1-6 who returned and reported Laish as such, and encouraged the Danites to go and possess it; for which purpose they sent six hundred men up to it, Jud 18:7-12 and as they went, called at the house of Micah, and took away his priests and his gods, Jud 18:13-27 and having taken Laish, set up Micah's graven image there, Jud 18:28-31.

Cross References

• 1. Judges 17:12
• 2. S Genesis 25:22; Jdg 20:18,23,27; 1 Samuel 14:18; 2 Samuel 5:19; 2 Kings 1:2; 2 Kings 8:8; 1 Kings 22:5
• 3. 1 Kings 22:6
• 4. ver 17
• 5. S Joshua 19:47
• 6. S Genesis 34:25
• 7. ver 28; Joshua 11:8

Footnotes

• [a]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
• [b]. Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts "with the Arameans"