Judges 18:3 - Printer Friendly

ESV: When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?"

NIV: When they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?"

NASB: When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, 'Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?'

CSB: While they were near Micah’s home, they recognized the accent of the young Levite. So they went over to him and asked, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is keeping you here?"

NLT: While at Micah’s house, they recognized the young Levite’s accent, so they went over and asked him, 'Who brought you here, and what are you doing in this place? Why are you here?'

KJV: When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?

NKJV: While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?”

Five spies—meaning "scouts"—from the tribe of Dan are on a mission. They seek a region where they can take more land for their own tribe. They are even willing to take it from a territory originally designated for another of Israel's twelve tribes. This mission brings them from the region near Zorah and Eshtaol to the hill country of Ephraim and, along the way, to the house of Micah (Judges 17:1–5). This was the man described in the prior chapter who'd hired a Levite as the priest of his own customized religion (Judges 17:7–13).

Now comes a plot twist. The spies recognize the voice of the young man Micah hired and ordained as his personal priest. Commentators differ about what, exactly, that means. Some believe these Danite men knew the Levite from his former wandering. What's much more likely is that they recognized his accent; other stories in the book of Judges show that regional pronunciations were notably different (Judges 12:6). The scouts realize the young man is originally from Judea and not the territory of Ephraim.

The men are curious about why this travelling Levite priest is living with Micah. They ask who brought him there, what he is doing there, and what his business is there. That they are so surprised and curious shows how unusual Micah's arrangement was.

Judges 18:1–13 finds five scouts from the tribe of Dan seeking a new place to live. They stop at Micah's house in Ephraim and get to know his Levite priest (Judges 17:1–5). They continue north and identify Laish as a soft target, as well as a good place to live. Before long, six hundred armed Danite men set out with their families and belongings. The entire company arrives at the home of Micah in Ephraim to camp for the night.

The people of the tribe of Dan want to relocate because they failed to take their allotted territory in the Promised Land. They send five scouts to find land. The men stop at Micah's home (Judges 17:1–5, 13) and meet his priest before continuing north. They find Laish and realize it's a soft, vulnerable, peaceful town. A six hundred-man army and their families stop at Micah's home to steal his house gods and hired priest. When they arrive at Laish, the Danites slaughter the Sidonians living there, burn the city, rebuild it, and move in. Dan becomes a center of false worship.

In the prior chapter, Micah hires a personal cleric for his family religion. Judges 18 describes how he loses all his religious objects and that priest to raiders from the tribe of Dan. That convoy continues north to their target, the town of Laish. This town was selected, in part, for being helpless against attackers. The raiders rename the city "Dan." The people and the priest establish a center for false worship which lasts for centuries. Joshua 19:40–48 describes how Dan moved from their allotted land into this unapproved territory (Joshua 17).

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).