Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Judges 18

The Danites seek an easier inheritance

1

In those days was no king in Israel, and in those days the tribe of the Danite sought to it an inheritance to dwell in, in that none had fallen to it until that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel as1 an inheritance.

2

And the sons of Dan ‹sent forth› from their family five men, from their ends;2 men, sons of worth,3 from Tzorah and from Eshta’ol, to ‹spy out›4 the land and search5 it. And they said unto them, “Go, search the land.” And they ‹came in› to the mountainland of Ephraim, until the house of Micah, and lodged there.

3

They were with the house of Micah, and they recognized6 the voice of the lad, the Levite, and ‹turned aside› there and said to him, “Who ‹brought thee in› hither, and what doest thou in this place, and what is for thee here?”

4

And he said unto them, “As this and as thus doeth Micah for me, and he hath paid me,7 and I am to him for a priest.”

5

And they said to him, “Ask, pray, in God, and we shall know if our way shall advance, that we are going upon.”

6

And the priest said to them, “Go unto shalom; before Yahweh is your way that ye go in.”8

7

And the five men went and ‹came in to› Laish,9 and saw the people that were in its inwards, dwelling in confidence,10 as unto the rule11 of the Sidonians, quietly12 and confidently,13 and no one dishonoring14 anything15 in the land or ‹taking possession› by restraint,16 and they were far from the Sidonians, and no word had they with any adam.17

The Danites plot a cowardly raid against Laish

8

And they ‹came in› unto their brothers, to Tzorah and Estha’ol, and their brothers said to them, “What ye?”

9

And they said, “Rise, and we shall ascend upon them, in that we have seen the land, and lo, very good;18 and ye are still! Be not sluggardly19 to go, to ‹come in› to possess the land,

10

as ‹coming in› ye shall ‹come in› unto a people confident, and the land broad on both hands,20 in that God hath given it into your hand; a place that there is no lack of any thing that is in the land.”

The Danites raid Micah’s house

11

They ‹pulled forth›21 from there, from the family of the Danite, from Tzorah and from Eshta’ol, six hundred men girded with trappings of war,

12

and they ascended and encamped in Kiriath-Y’arim in Yehuda; upon so they called that place the Camp of Dan22 until this day; lo it is after Kiriath-Y’arim.

13

And they crossed from there to the mountainland of Ephraim and ‹came in› unto the house of Micah.

14

And the five men, those who went to ‹spy out›23 the land of Laish, answered and said unto their brothers, “Know ye that there is24 in these houses an ephod and ‹domestic idols› and a carving and a casting—and now, know ye what to do?”

15

And they ‹turned aside› there, and came in unto the house of the lad, the Levite, the house of Micah, and asked unto him, unto shalom.25

16

And the six hundred men girded with trappings of war posted themselves at the opening of the gate, that were from the sons of Dan,

17

and the five men, them going to ‹spy out› the land, ascended, ‹came in› there: took the carving and the ephod and the ‹domestic idols› and the casting—and the priest posted himself in the opening of the gate, and the six hundred men girded with trappings of war—

18

and they ‹came into› the house of Micah and took the carving, the ephod, and the ‹domestic idols›, and the casting. And the priest said unto them, “What are ye doing?”

19

And they said to him, “Be silent, set thine hand upon thy mouth and go with us, and be to us for a father and for a priest. Goodlier to be thou priest to the house of one man, or to be thou priest to a tribe and to a family in Israel?”

20

And ‹it was good to›26 the heart of the priest, and he took the ephod and the ‹domestic idols› and the carving, and ‹came in› into the inwards of the people,

21

and they about-faced and went and set the toddlers27 and the stock and the ‹weighty things›28 before their face.

Micah fails to recover his idols

22

They were far from the house of Micah, and the men that were in the houses that were with the house of Micah were cried to,29 and they clutched30 after the sons of Dan,

23

and called unto the sons of Dan, and they turned around their faces and said to Micah, “What to thee, that thou criest?”31

24

And he said, “My gods that I made ye have taken, and the priest, and ye have gone, and what is there still for me? And what is this ye say unto me, ‘What to thee?’”

25

And the sons of Dan said unto him, “Let not thy voice be heard with us, lest men of bitter lifebreath32 ‹meet upon›33 you,34 and thou gather up35 thy lifebreath and the lifebreath of thy house.”

26

And the sons of Dan went their way, and Micah saw that they were stronger than he, and he about-faced and ‹turned back› unto his house.

The Danites invade Laish and establish a false temple there

27

And they took what Micah had made, and the priest that had been to him, and ‹came in› upon Laish, upon a people quiet and confident, and they smote them with the mouth of the sword, and the city they incinerated36 in fire,

28

and there was no delivering, in that it was far from Sidon, and no word had they with any adam, and it was in the valley that is unto Beth Rehob.37 And they built the city and dwelt in it,

29

and they called the name of the city Dan, in the name of Dan their father that was begotten to Israel; and yet38 Laish was the name of the city at its head.39

30

And the sons of Dan ‹raised up› to them the carving, and Yonathan son of Gershom son of Mosheh,40 he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the uncovering41 of the land,

31

and they ‹set up› to them the carving of Micah that he made, all the days that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Footnotes

  1. as. Lit. “in.” ↩

  2. from their ends. This could be understood in two ways, as reflected in the diversity of renderings in more dynamic translations: either, from their edges, i.e., their borders; or otherwise, from within their whole number, i.e., from one end of their tribe to the other. The first meaning is not really the same as the second however, in that the edge is the fringe. Are these “fringe” men, or are they the best Dan has to offer? The text is ambiguous. Perhaps it is both: the best Dan has to offer are fringe men. ↩

  3. worth (chayil). See note on Jdg 11:1. ↩

  4. spy out (regel). Lit. “foot;” this is a Hebrew idiom that isn’t really translatable into English in my opinion. ↩

  5. search (chaqar). This could mean “explore,” but the term really does mean search, and its head is Deuteronomy 13:14. ↩

  6. recognized (nakhar). This is the same word that means a foreigner; i.e., someone you don’t recognize. ↩

  7. paid me (sakhar). The same verb is used in Jdg 9:4. ↩

  8. before Yahweh is your way that ye go in. It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, and it’s not exactly true either. The Levite, like many liars, wants to hedge his bets, and thus fails to offer either assurance or truth. ↩

  9. Laish. “Lion,” but not the common word for a lion, aryeh. ↩

  10. confidence (batach). Cf. Jdg 8:11; Jdg 9:26. ↩

  11. rule (mishpat). I.e., the custom. See note on Jdg 13:12. ↩

  12. quietly (shaqat). The same word used of the land having quiet after a judge saves Israel. The word here in Hebrew is a verb, as is “confidently,” but the best we can do in English is an adverb. ↩

  13. quietly and confidently. The NET’s gloss is apropos: “undisturbed and unsuspecting.” ↩

  14. dishonoring (kalam). Or “humiliated.” ↩

  15. anything (davar). Or “a word.” ↩

  16. restraint (’etzer). I.e., no one possessing the land through force or oppression. This is the same word used in Jdg 13:15–16. ↩

  17. adam. Or possibly Aram; the words look nearly identical in Hebrew, and this could be a scribal error. Hence LXX-A, “Syria.” If adam is the correct reading, it means the people of Laish have nothing to do with anyone. See note on Jdg 16:7. ↩

  18. very good (tov m’od). The same phrase used in Genesis 1. ↩

  19. sluggardly (’atzal). The same word used repeatedly in Proverbs; i.e., “be not idle.” ↩

  20. broad on both hands. Very literally, “broad of hands,” but this loses information, for the Hebrew is in the dual construct, indicating specifically two hands. ↩

  21. pulled forth (nasa’). See note on Jdg 16:3. ↩

  22. the Camp of Dan. Untranslated, Mahane Dan. ↩

  23. spy out (ragel). This is a curious idiom in Hebrew; the verbal form of “foot;” i.e., to go about (with devious intent). Unfortunately, to speak of men “feeting” the land is incoherent in English. ↩

  24. is (yesh). Neither an implied verb, nor the regular word for “to be,” but rather a demonstrative particle that seems to have some extra force or shade of meaning which cannot be readily translated. ↩

  25. asked unto him, unto shalom. The Hebrew is quite ambiguous here. They could be asking for him in shalom (i.e., in pretended peace), or asking of him about his shalom (i.e., his welfare). ↩

  26. it was good to (yatav). Grammatically, “it was well with.” See Jdg 17:13. ↩

  27. toddlers (taph). Literally the “trippers” or “mincers,” referring to the gait of children. The English “toddler” seems to have more or less the same sense, though perhaps connotes a narrower (younger) age bracket. ↩

  28. weighty things (kevuddah). Or, “their substance,” or “their heavy goods.”” The root is kvd, referring to weightiness (trad. “glory”). ↩

  29. cried to (za’aq). I.e., they were called together, summonsed. ↩

  30. clutched (davaq). I.e., they chased and caught them. The word properly means to cling or become attached to something, as if by glue; its head is Genesis 2:24, where a man shall davaq with his woman and they shall be for one flesh. The traditional translation here of “cleave” is misleading, as it implies the penetration of the woman; but davaq does not connote this. Properly, the man becomes attached to his woman, but unfortunately in English this ironically connotes considerably less than becoming one together when applied to people/relationships. ↩

  31. criest (za’aq). Or, “art called together?” But this creates a number mismatch; at best they are asking why he has cried unto his neighbors rather than unto them. ↩

  32. men of bitter life-breath. Or “bitter-souled men.” Cf. 2 Sam 17:8. ↩

  33. meet upon (paga’). Cf. Jdg 8:21; 15:12. ↩

  34. you (ata). The preposition here is plural, not singular. ↩

  35. gather up (asaph). Cf. Gen 25:8 etc. This seems to be a variation on the idiom of being gathered to one’s people, but the number of odd word choices in this chapter is striking, given that they seem calculated to repeat key terms that have occurred previously in Judges. ↩

  36. incinerated (saraph). See note on Jdg 9:52. ↩

  37. Beth Rehob. “House of Broadness.” Cf. v 10. ↩

  38. yet (ulam). A rare contrastive adverb first used in Gen 28:19. ↩

  39. at its head (rishon). Or “at its beginning;” the root is rsh, head, which I prefer to translate literally wherever possible. ↩

  40. Mosheh. I.e., Moses. ↩

  41. uncovering (galah). More forcefully, the “denuding” of the land. This generally refers to the exile, in which the people of the land were often stripped naked, and the land itself was stripped of its people. Whether it is referring to the exile here, or to its precursor in the subjection of the land to the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4, is not clear. ↩