What does Judges 18:12 mean?
At least a portion of the tribe of Dan, one of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel, has left behind their allotted territory (Numbers 3:5–10). They plan to move far north and take land from the territory of Manasseh (Joshua 17), though no Israelite settlements are yet in the area. Instead, they plan to defeat some peaceful, oblivious Sidonians living in a town called Laish.The trip begins at the struggling Danite hometowns of Zorah and Eshtaol. Six hundred men and their families set out. They set up camp along the way just to the west of a place in Judah called Kiriath-jearim. Nothing is reported to have happened there in this verse, but the occasion of the tribe of Dan passing through was apparently unusual enough to result in renaming the place to Mahaneh-dan, which means "camp of Dan."