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Context No. 661 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 18:6-10: in context

6The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before the LORD.” 7Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in safety, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone else. 8They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?” 9They said, “Arise, and let’s go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. 10When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

Judges covers the disordered years between Joshua and the kings, and it keeps repeating its own verdict: there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The tribe of Dan has failed to hold the land assigned to it and sends five men to find somewhere else. On the way they lodge with a man named Micah, who keeps a private shrine and a Levite he has hired as his priest, and they ask the priest whether their journey will succeed. He tells them to go in peace; their way is before the LORD.

So they come to Laish and find a people living quietly and securely in the manner of the Sidonians, far from anyone, with no one in the land to defend them. The scouts go home and report, and the report mixes appetite with piety. The land is very good; do not be slow; God has given it into your hand, an unsuspecting people, a place that lacks nothing. The one thing they say about Laish is that it cannot fight back, and over that they lay the words God has given it. The chapter ends with the town struck and burned and renamed Dan.

The scouts covered a raid on the defenseless with the language of a gift from God. What have I told myself God handed me, when the truth is only that no one could stop me?

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