18:7 So the five men journeyed on 6 and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there 7 were living securely, like the Sidonians do, 8 undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way. 9 They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. 10 18:8 When the Danites returned to their tribe 11 in Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen 12 asked them, “How did it go?” 13
1 tn Heb “He said to them, ‘Such and such Micah has done for me.’” Though the statement is introduced and presented, at least in part, as a direct quotation (note especially “for me”), the phrase “such and such” appears to be the narrator’s condensed version of what the Levite really said.
2 tn Heb “Ask God.”
3 tn Heb “so we can know if our way on which we are going will be successful.”
4 tn Heb “in peace.”
5 tn Heb “In front of the LORD is your way in which you are going.”
6 tn Or “went.”
7 tn Heb “who were in its midst.”
8 tn Heb “according to the custom of the Sidonians.”
9 tn Heb “and there was no one humiliating anything in the land, one taking possession [by] force.”
10 tc Heb “and a thing there was not to them with men.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX and Symmachus read “Syria” here rather than the MT’s “men.” This reading presupposes a Hebrew Vorlage אֲרָם (’aram, “Aram,” i.e., Arameans) rather than the MT reading אָדָם (’adam). This reading is possibly to be preferred over the MT.
11 tn Heb “They came to their brothers.”
12 tn Heb “brothers.”
13 tn Heb “What you?”