Judges 18:3-6

18:3 As they approached ¹  Micah’s house, they recognized the accent ²  of the young Levite. So they stopped ³  there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” ⁴  18:4 He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, ⁵  “He hired me and I became his priest.” 18:5 They said to him, “Seek a divine oracle for us, ⁶  so we can know if we will be successful on our mission.” ⁷  18:6 The priest said to them, “Go with confidence. ⁸  The Lord will be with you on your mission.” ⁹ 

[18:3]  ¹ tn Or “When they were near.”

[18:3]  ² tn Heb “voice.” This probably means that “his speech was Judahite [i.e., southern] like their own, not Israelite [i.e., northern]” (R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 263).

[18:3]  ³ tn Heb “turned aside.”

[18:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”

[18:4]  ⁵ 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.

[18:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “Ask God.”

[18:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so we can know if our way on which we are going will be successful.”

[18:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “in peace.”

[18:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “In front of the LORD is your way in which you are going.”