Discovery BoxJudges 18:7-12 
Context18:7 So the five men journeyed on 1 and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there 2 were living securely, like the Sidonians do, 3 undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way. 4 They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. 5 18:8 When the Danites returned to their tribe 6 in Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen 7 asked them, “How did it go?” 8 18:9 They said, “Come on, let’s attack them, 9 for 10 we saw their land and it is very good. You seem lethargic, 11 but don’t hesitate 12 to invade and conquer 13 the land. 18:10 When you invade, 14 you will encounter 15 unsuspecting people. The land is wide! 16 God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” 17
18:11 So six hundred Danites, fully armed, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. 18 18:12 They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. 19 It is west 20 of Kiriath Jearim.)
1 tn Or “went.”
2 tn Heb “who were in its midst.”
3 tn Heb “according to the custom of the Sidonians.”
4 tn Heb “and there was no one humiliating anything in the land, one taking possession [by] force.”
5 tc Heb “and a thing there was not to them with men.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX and Symmachus read “Syria” here rather than the MT’s “men.” This reading presupposes a Hebrew Vorlage אֲרָם (’aram, “Aram,” i.e., Arameans) rather than the MT reading אָדָם (’adam). This reading is possibly to be preferred over the MT.
6 tn Heb “They came to their brothers.”
7 tn Heb “brothers.”
8 tn Heb “What you?”
9 tn Heb “Arise, and let us go up against them.”
10 tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX adds “we entered and walked around in the land as far as Laish and.”
11 tn Heb “But you are inactive.”
12 tn Or “be lazy.”
13 tn Heb “to go”; “to enter”; “to possess.”
14 tn Heb “When you enter.”
15 tn Heb “you will come to.”
16 tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”
17 tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”
18 tn Heb “They journeyed from there, from the tribe of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men, equipped with weapons of war.”
19 tn Or “Mahaneh Dan”; the Hebrew term “Mahaneh” means “camp [of].” Many English versions retain the transliterated Hebrew expression, but cf. CEV “Dan’s Camp.”
20 tn Heb “behind.”
