Hakim-hakim 18:8-13

18:8 When the Danites returned to their tribe ¹  in Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen ²  asked them, “How did it go?” ³  18:9 They said, “Come on, let’s attack them, ⁴  for ⁵  we saw their land and it is very good. You seem lethargic, ⁶  but don’t hesitate ⁷  to invade and conquer ⁸  the land. 18:10 When you invade, ⁹  you will encounter ¹⁰  unsuspecting people. The land is wide! ¹¹  God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” ¹² 

18:11 So six hundred Danites, fully armed, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. ¹³  18:12 They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. ¹⁴  It is west ¹⁵  of Kiriath Jearim.) 18:13 From there they traveled through the Ephraimite hill country and arrived at Micah’s house.

Hakim-hakim 18:27-29

18:27 Now the Danites ¹⁶  took what Micah had made, as well as his priest, and came to Laish, where the people were undisturbed and unsuspecting. They struck them down with the sword and burned the city. ¹⁷  18:28 No one came to the rescue because the city ¹⁸  was far from Sidon ¹⁹  and they had no dealings with anyone. ²⁰  The city ²¹  was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites ²²  rebuilt the city and occupied it. 18:29 They named it Dan after their ancestor, who was one of Israel’s sons. ²³  But the city’s name used to be Laish.

[18:8]  ¹ tn Heb “They came to their brothers.”

[18:8]  ² tn Heb “brothers.”

[18:8]  ³ tn Heb “What you?”

[18:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “Arise, and let us go up against them.”

[18:9]  ⁵ tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX adds “we entered and walked around in the land as far as Laish and.”

[18:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “But you are inactive.”

[18:9]  ⁷ tn Or “be lazy.”

[18:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “to go”; “to enter”; “to possess.”

[18:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “When you enter.”

[18:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you will come to.”

[18:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”

[18:10]  ¹² tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

[18:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “They journeyed from there, from the tribe of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men, equipped with weapons of war.”

[18:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Mahaneh Dan”; the Hebrew term “Mahaneh” means “camp [of].” Many English versions retain the transliterated Hebrew expression, but cf. CEV “Dan’s Camp.”

[18:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “behind.”

[18:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew adds “with fire.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

[18:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “it.” The Hebrew pronoun is feminine singular here, referring to the “city” (a grammatically feminine singular noun) mentioned in v. 27.

[18:28]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[18:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and a thing there was not to them with men.”

[18:28]  ²¹ tn Heb “it.” The Hebrew pronoun is feminine singular here, referring to the “city” (a grammatically feminine singular noun) mentioned in v. 27.

[18:28]  ²² tn Heb “They”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ²³ tn Heb “They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who had been born to Israel.”