Matthew Henry on Judges 18:7-13
Here is, I. The observation which the spies made upon the city of Laish, and the posture of its inhabitants, Jdg 18:7. Never was place so ill governed and so ill guarded, which would make it a very easy prey to the invader.
1. It was ill governed, for every man might be as bad as he would, and there was no magistrate, no heir of restraint (as the word is), that might so much as put them to shame in any thing, much less put them to death, so that by the most impudent immoralities they provoked God's wrath, and by all manner of mutual mischiefs weakened and consumed one another. See here, (1.) What the office of magistrates is. They are to be heirs of restraint, that is, to preserve a constant…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 18:11
there went from thence of the family of the Danites . . . six hundred men--This was the collective number of the men who were equipped with arms to carry out this expeditionary enterprise, without including the families and furniture of the emigrants (Jdg 18:21). Their journey led them through the territory of Judah, and their first halting place was "behind," that is, on the west of Kirjath-jearim, on a spot called afterwards "the camp of Dan." Prosecuting the northern route, they skirted the base of the Ephraimite hills. On approaching the neighborhood of Micah's residence, the spies having given information that a private sanctuary was kept there, the priest of which had rendered them imp…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Judges 18:12
And they went up and pitched in Kirjathjearim in Judah,.... Of which place see Joshua 15:9. According to Bunting (a) it was sixteen miles from Zorah and Eshtaol, and this was their first day's march:
wherefore they called the name of that place Mahanehdan unto this day; which signifies the camp of Dan, or of the Danites; so it was called in the times of Samson, Judges 13:25 and is a proof that this expedition was before his time; and it was so called, it seems, in the time of Samuel, the writer of this book:
behold, it is behind Kirjathjearim; to the west of it; for though they are said to pitch in that place, the meaning is, that they pitched near it, in the fields adjacent to it, which w…
