Judges 18:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: and went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. On this account that place is called Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim.

NIV: On their way they set up camp near Kiriath Jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is called Mahaneh Dan to this day.

NASB: They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim.

CSB: They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. This is why the place is still called the Camp of Dan today; it is west of Kiriath-jearim.

NLT: They camped at a place west of Kiriath-jearim in Judah, which is called Mahaneh-dan to this day.

KJV: And they went up, and pitched in Kirjathjearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahanehdan unto this day: behold, it is behind Kirjathjearim.

NKJV: Then they went up and encamped in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.)

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."

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).

Accessed 5/3/2024 9:24:48 AM