Judges 18: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The tribe of Dan, still without land of its own, sends five scouts who stop at Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim and get a favorable answer from his Levite priest. The scouts find Laish, a quiet and unsuspecting town far from any ally, and report that it can be taken. Six hundred armed Danites march north, seize Micah's idols and his priest along the way, and warn Micah off when he protests. They destroy Laish, rebuild the city and name it Dan, and set up Micah's carved image there with Jonathan and his sons as priests.

Claim by Claim

1. 18:1
   • In those days there was no king in Israel.
   • In those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in.
   • Up to that day no inheritance had fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.
2. 18:2
   • The children of Dan sent five men from their family, from their whole number.
   • The five men were men of valor.
   • The five men were from Zorah and from Eshtaol.
   • They were sent to spy out the land and to search it.
   • The Danites told them to go and search the land.
   • The men came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah.
   • The men lodged there.
3. 18:3
   • While they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite.
   • They turned aside there.
   • They asked him who brought him there.
   • They asked him what he was doing in that place.
   • They asked him what he had there.
4. 18:4
   • The Levite said that Micah had done thus and thus for him.
   • The Levite said that Micah had hired him.
   • The Levite said that he had become Micah's priest.
5. 18:5
   • They asked him to inquire of God.
   • They said the purpose was that they might know whether the journey they were going on would succeed.
6. 18:6
   • The priest told them to go in peace.
   • The priest said their journey on which they were going was before the LORD.
7. 18:7
   • The five men departed.
   • The five men came to Laish.
   • They saw the people who were in it dwelling securely, after the manner of the Sidonians.
   • The people were quiet and trusting.
   • There was no one in the land who put them to shame in anything.
   • There was one in the land possessing restraint or wealth, a phrase whose meaning is unclear.
   • They were far from the Sidonians.
   • They had no dealings with anyone.
8. 18:8
   • The five men came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol.
   • Their brothers asked them what they had to report.
9. 18:9
   • They said to arise and go up against them.
   • They said they had seen the land.
   • They said the land was very good.
   • They asked why the others were keeping still.
   • They said not to be slow to go and enter and take possession of the land.
10. 18:10
    • They said that when the others came, they would come to a people who were unsuspecting.
    • They said the land was broad on both sides.
    • They said God had given the land into their hand.
    • They said it was a place where nothing was lacking of anything that was in the earth.
11. 18:11
    • Six hundred men of the family of the Danites set out from there, from Zorah and from Eshtaol.
    • The six hundred men were girded with weapons of war.
12. 18:12
    • They went up and camped at Kirjath-jearim in Judah.
    • For that reason that place was called Mahaneh-dan to this day.
    • The place lies behind Kirjath-jearim.
13. 18:13
    • They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim.
    • They came to the house of Micah.
14. 18:14
    • The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish spoke to their brothers.
    • They asked whether their brothers knew that in these houses there was an ephod, household idols, a graven image, and a molten image.
    • They told their brothers to consider what they should do.
15. 18:15
    • They turned aside there.
    • They came to the house of the young man, the Levite, the house of Micah.
    • They asked him how he was.
16. 18:16
    • The six hundred men girded with their weapons of war stood at the entrance of the gate.
    • These six hundred men were of the children of Dan.
17. 18:17
    • The five men who had gone to spy out the land went up and entered there.
    • They took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten image.
    • The priest was standing at the entrance of the gate.
    • The six hundred men girded with weapons of war were there.
18. 18:18
    • These went into Micah's house.
    • They took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten image.
    • The priest asked them what they were doing.
19. 18:19
    • They told him to be silent.
    • They told him to put his hand over his mouth.
    • They told him to go with them.
    • They told him to be to them a father and a priest.
    • They asked whether it was better for him to be priest to the house of one man or priest to a tribe and a family in Israel.
20. 18:20
    • The priest's heart was glad.
    • The priest took the ephod, the household idols, and the graven image.
    • The priest went in among the people.
21. 18:21
    • They turned and went on their way.
    • They put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them.
22. 18:22
    • They had gone a good distance from the house of Micah.
    • The men who were in the houses near Micah's house were called out together.
    • They overtook the children of Dan.
23. 18:23
    • They called out to the children of Dan.
    • The Danites turned their faces around.
    • They said to Micah, asking what was wrong with him that he had been called out with such a company.
24. 18:24
    • Micah said they had taken the gods he had made.
    • Micah said they had taken the priest.
    • Micah said they had gone away.
    • Micah asked what he had left.
    • Micah asked how they could say to him, What is the matter with you.
25. 18:25
    • The children of Dan told him not to let his voice be heard among them.
    • They said that otherwise men bitter of soul might fall upon them.
    • They said he would lose his own life and the lives of his household.
26. 18:26
    • The children of Dan went on their way.
    • Micah saw that they were too strong for him.
    • Micah turned and went back to his house.
27. 18:27
    • They took what Micah had made.
    • They took the priest who had been his.
    • They came upon Laish, to a people quiet and trusting.
    • They struck them with the edge of the sword.
    • They burned the city with fire.
28. 18:28
    • There was no deliverer.
    • The city was far from Sidon.
    • They had no dealings with anyone.
    • The city was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob.
    • They built the city.
    • They dwelt in it.
29. 18:29
    • They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father.
    • Dan was born to Israel.
    • The name of the city was formerly Laish.
30. 18:30
    • The children of Dan set up the graven image for themselves.
    • Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan.
    • They were priests until the day of the captivity of the land.
31. 18:31
    • They set up for themselves Micah's graven image, which he had made.
    • It remained there all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

18:1

"In those days Israel had no king" is a refrain running through the closing chapters of Judges (also 17:6, 19:1, 21:25), marking the period before the monarchy, when no central authority existed. On the land: when Israel settled Canaan each tribe was assigned a fixed territory, held permanently by the tribe and its families; this allotment is what is meant by an "inheritance." Dan had been assigned land on the coastal plain, but had not been able to take possession of it and was still without a home territory.

18:2

Zorah and Eshtaol were towns on the western slopes of the hill country, at the edge of the plain, the same district where Samson's story is set. Dan was living crowded into this small area instead of the territory it had been given.

18:3

A Levite was a member of the tribe of Levi, the one tribe given no territory of its own and set apart instead for duties connected with worship; hiring a Levite as a household priest was seen as a mark of legitimacy. "Recognized the voice" may mean they knew him personally, or, as many read it: that they recognized his accent, marking him as a southerner from Judah.

18:4

The previous chapter gives the terms of the deal: ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes and his food. He is an employee, and Micah's shrine is a private household operation.

18:5

"Ask God for us" means to seek a yes-or-no answer about a course of action through a priest, who used objects kept for the purpose (see the ephod in verse 14). It was a standard step before a military expedition, not a request for general advice.

18:6

The Hebrew answer is short and slippery: literally "your way, on which you go, is in front of the LORD." It can mean the LORD is watching over the journey and approves it, or merely that the journey is in plain sight of the LORD. The priest does not actually say the venture will succeed.

18:7

Laish lay far to the north, near the headwaters of the Jordan, well beyond where any Israelite tribe was settled. Sidon was a wealthy Phoenician port on the Mediterranean coast; the people of Laish shared its way of life but were too far inland for Sidon to protect them. "Had no dealings with anyone" translates a Hebrew phrase that most likely means they had no treaty or alliance with any neighboring power, so no one was obliged to come to their aid. The middle of this verse is damaged in the Hebrew and its exact sense is uncertain; it describes either a land where nothing was lacking, or a place with no ruler oppressing anyone, or both.

18:9

KJV "are ye still?" means "are you just sitting there doing nothing?" and "slothful" means slow to act, not lazy in general.

18:10

In the King James, "want" means lack. "No want of any thing" means nothing was missing.

18:11

Six hundred armed men is a raiding party rather than an army, but against a small unwalled town it was overwhelming. Verse 21 shows this was a whole community on the move, with children, animals and belongings, not just a war band.

18:12

Kirjathjearim was a town in Judah about nine miles west of Jerusalem. "Mahanehdan" means "camp of Dan"; the name preserved the memory of this overnight stop. "To this day" refers to the time of the writer, long after the events.

18:14

Four objects, all connected with seeking answers from a god. An **ephod** was a priest's ceremonial garment, but the word is also used of a standing object used in divination, which is how it is used here, since it can be carried off. **Household gods** (Hebrew *teraphim*) were small images kept in a home, used in divination and associated with a family's identity and property claims. A **carved image** was cut from wood or stone; a **metal image** was cast. The Hebrew leaves it unclear whether these are two separate objects or a single wooden figure overlaid with cast metal.

18:15

"Saluted him" simply means greeted him. It is not a military salute.

18:16

The "gate" is the entrance to Micah's own walled compound, not a city gate; a substantial household of the period was a cluster of buildings around an enclosed courtyard with a single gateway.

18:19

Putting a hand over the mouth was a set gesture for forced silence. Calling a priest "father" was a title of respect for someone who gives guidance and rulings, not a statement about age or family.

18:21

Placing the children, animals and baggage at the front put the armed men at the rear, between the vulnerable part of the column and any pursuit from behind.

18:23

"What aileth thee" is ordinary 1611 English for "what is wrong with you?"

18:24

The Hebrew word here is *elohim*, which can be plural ("gods") or singular ("god"), and the verse can be read either way. Micah's complaint is about ownership: the objects were made for his house, and with the priest gone as well he has no way of getting an answer from any god.

18:25

KJV "angry fellows" translates a Hebrew phrase for bitter or hot-tempered men. The sentence is a straightforward threat: make noise and you and your household will be killed.

18:27

"Struck them down with the sword" renders a fixed Hebrew phrase, literally "struck with the mouth of the sword," used throughout these books for killing an entire population of a captured town.

18:28

Bethrehob was a small Aramean territory in the far north, near the headwaters of the Jordan. "No one to rescue them" is a legal-sounding point rather than a moral one: Laish had no allies bound to intervene, and the nearest major city, Sidon, was too distant.

18:29

This is how the northern city of Dan got its name. It became Israel's traditional northern boundary marker, hence the later phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" for the whole land. Dan the ancestor was one of Jacob's sons; "Israel" here is Jacob's other name.

18:30

Gershom was Moses' firstborn son (Exodus 2:22), which would make this priest Moses' grandson. The Hebrew text as preserved reads "Manasseh," but the letter *n* is written raised above the line, an ancient scribal mark showing it was inserted into the name *Mosheh* (Moses) to produce *Menasheh* (Manasseh). Some early versions read "Moses." "The day the land's people were taken away as captives" is not clearly dated; it may refer to the Assyrian deportation of the north in the eighth century BC, or to an earlier local disaster.

18:31

Shiloh, in the hill country of Ephraim, was where the portable sanctuary, the "house of God", stood during this period, before Jerusalem. The verse dates how long the Danite shrine operated by setting it alongside that older site.