The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
Parallel Translations
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The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
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And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.
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And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them: 'Go, search the land'; and they came to the hill-country of Ephraim, unto the house of Micah, and lodged there.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Judges 18:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 13:25 Yahweh’s Spirit began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
- Joshua 2:1 Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.
- Numbers 13:17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way by the South, and go up into the hill country.
- Judges 18:8 They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?”
- Judges 18:11 The family of the Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol with six hundred men armed with weapons of war.
- Genesis 42:9 Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
- Joshua 17:15-18 Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and clear land for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim; since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.” The children of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.” Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, that is, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, “You are a numerous people, and have great power. You shall not have one lot only; but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and it’s farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”
- Joshua 19:41 The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh,
- Judges 13:2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless.
- Judges 16:31–17:1 Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years. There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
- Judges 19:1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.
- Judges 19:18 He said to him, “We are passing from Bethlehem Judah to the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem Judah. I am going to Yahweh’s house; and there is no one who has taken me into his house.
- Proverbs 20:18 Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!
- Luke 14:31 Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain For the portion which Joshua gave them, was not…
For the portion which Joshua gave them, was not sufficient for all their tribe.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jdg 18:2 And the children of Dan sent of…
Jdg 18:2 And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.
Ver. 2. To the house of Micah, they lodged there.] He was a wealthy man, it seems, and gave them entertainment. But what a rich man was Pythias, who could entertain a million of men, even Xerxes’s whole army, for three days together! And yet this great rich man died a beggar, whatever Micah did.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Of their family; which shows that it was but…
Of their family; which shows that it was but one, though a large family, which was engaged in this expedition. Eshtaol; of which see Jos 19:41; Jdg 13:2,25.
They lodged there; not in the same house, but near it, as appears from the next verse, in a neighbouring place.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the children of Dan sent of their family…
And the children of Dan sent of their family five men,.... According to Abarbinel one out of a family, as Moses sent one out of a tribe to spy the land; and so there must be five families concerned in this affair:
from their coasts, men of valour from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; these men were sent from the borders of the tribe, the extreme parts of it, as the word may signify, where perhaps they were the most pressed and overcrowded: Zorah and Eshtaol are particularly mentioned, and were the first cities in their lot, and were the coast of their inheritance; see Gill on Jos 19:41 some take the phrase rendered "from their coasts" to signify persons of extreme meanness, men of the lowest class among them; but the above mentioned writers interpret it to a quite contrary sense, by "Katzinim", princes, such as Moses sent to spy the land; and this better agrees with the next clause, "men of valour": and the word used signifies not only magnanimity and fortitude of mind, but wealth and riches; and these were sent not to spy the land of Canaan, but such places as fell to this tribe, but were possessed by the Canaanites; and their errand was to observe in what condition they were, and whether fit for their purpose, and easy to obtain, and how they might get the possession of any of them:
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and they said unto them, search the land; and see if some convenient place cannot be found out to enlarge their inheritance, and give them more room and liberty for their families, now pent up, and a pasturage for their flocks and herds:
who when they came to Mount Ephraim; which lay upon the borders of them:
to the house of Micah, they lodged there; that is, when they were come near to the house of Micah, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, they took up their lodging in the neighbourhood of it, perhaps at a public house or inn; for the sense is not, that they lodged in Micah's house, for after this we read of their turning into it, as in the next verse. According to Bunting (r), this place was twenty four miles from Zorah and Eshtaol, from whence these men came.
(r) Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 112.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain There - Not in the same house, but near…
There - Not in the same house, but near it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. Five men - men of valour] The…
Verse 2. Five men - men of valour] The Hebrew word חיל chayil has been applied to personal prowess, to mental energy, and to earthly possessions. They sent those in whose courage, judgment, and prudence, they could safely confide.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jdg 18:2-5. They lodged there — Not in the…
Jdg 18:2-5. They lodged there — Not in the same house, but near it. They knew the voice of the young man — Having been acquainted with him before he came to live with Micah. Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God — By thine ephod and teraphim, or image, which they knew he had. This and the following verse show that this sanctuary of Micah was dedicated to the true God, and not to idols. But how ignorant were these Danites, to suppose God would be consulted here as well as in his house at Shiloh!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain This identity of locality with the scene of Samson’s…
This identity of locality with the scene of Samson’s birth and death indicates that both narratives are drawn from the same source, probably the annals of the tribe of Dan.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Family. Hebrew, "From their extremity." Which may denote such…
Family. Hebrew, "From their extremity." Which may denote such as came to hand, (Calmet) or princes, (De Dieu) or people of mean appearance, (Castalion) unless we explain it "from their coasts," with Montanus, Protestants, &c. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. The repetitions in this verse (of their family,…
2. The repetitions in this verse (of their family, of their whole number; five, men, men of valour; to search it, search the land) point to a combination of the two narratives, of which the beginning can be traced in ch. 17.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) From their coasts.—Literally, their ends (Gen_19:4; 1Ki_12:31). Some…
(2) From their coasts.—Literally, their ends (Gen_19:4; 1Ki_12:31). Some explain it to mean “from their whole number.”
Men of valour.—Literally, sons of force (Jdg_21:10).
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To spy out the land.—As in Jos_2:1.
They came to mount Ephraim.—It would have been an easier journey to pass along the Shephelah, but that was mainly in the hands of the original inhabitants.
To the house of Micah.—There is no necessity for the supposition that they did not actually lodge in the house, or, at any rate, in the khan which doubtless formed part of the settlement. The centre of a new and gorgeous worship was sure to have places around it where those could lodge who came to consult the pesel-ephod (see Jdg_18:18), just as even the ordinary synagogues had lodgings for wayfarers.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They came to Mount Ephraim. (Jud_1:17:1, 8) The hill…
They came to Mount Ephraim. (Jud_1:17:1, 8) The hill country of Ephraim would be on their way to the north from Eshtaol. They would naturally avoid the plain where the Amorites and Philistines were strong.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.