Discovery BoxJudges 18:2-10 
Context18:2 The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, 1 capable men 2 from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. 3 18:3 As they approached 4 Micah’s house, they recognized the accent 5 of the young Levite. So they stopped 6 there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” 7 18:4 He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, 8 “He hired me and I became his priest.” 18:5 They said to him, “Seek a divine oracle for us, 9 so we can know if we will be successful on our mission.” 10 18:6 The priest said to them, “Go with confidence. 11 The Lord will be with you on your mission.” 12
18:7 So the five men journeyed on 13 and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there 14 were living securely, like the Sidonians do, 15 undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way. 16 They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. 17 18:8 When the Danites returned to their tribe 18 in Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen 19 asked them, “How did it go?” 20 18:9 They said, “Come on, let’s attack them, 21 for 22 we saw their land and it is very good. You seem lethargic, 23 but don’t hesitate 24 to invade and conquer 25 the land. 18:10 When you invade, 26 you will encounter 27 unsuspecting people. The land is wide! 28 God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” 29
1 tn Heb “The Danites sent from their tribe five men, from their borders.”
2 tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”
3 tn Heb “They came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, and spent the night there.”
4 tn Or “When they were near.”
5 tn Heb “voice.” This probably means that “his speech was Judahite [i.e., southern] like their own, not Israelite [i.e., northern]” (R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 263).
6 tn Heb “turned aside.”
7 tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”
8 tn Heb “He said to them, ‘Such and such Micah has done for me.’” Though the statement is introduced and presented, at least in part, as a direct quotation (note especially “for me”), the phrase “such and such” appears to be the narrator’s condensed version of what the Levite really said.
9 tn Heb “Ask God.”
10 tn Heb “so we can know if our way on which we are going will be successful.”
11 tn Heb “in peace.”
12 tn Heb “In front of the LORD is your way in which you are going.”
13 tn Or “went.”
14 tn Heb “who were in its midst.”
15 tn Heb “according to the custom of the Sidonians.”
16 tn Heb “and there was no one humiliating anything in the land, one taking possession [by] force.”
17 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.
18 tn Heb “They came to their brothers.”
19 tn Heb “brothers.”
20 tn Heb “What you?”
21 tn Heb “Arise, and let us go up against them.”
22 tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX adds “we entered and walked around in the land as far as Laish and.”
23 tn Heb “But you are inactive.”
24 tn Or “be lazy.”
25 tn Heb “to go”; “to enter”; “to possess.”
26 tn Heb “When you enter.”
27 tn Heb “you will come to.”
28 tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”
29 tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”
