So they said to him, “Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous.”
Parallel translations
- WEB They said to him, “Please ask counsel of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.”
- KJV And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.
- BSB Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to determine whether we will have a successful journey.”
- NASB Then they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be successful.”
- NLT Then they said, “Ask God whether or not our journey will be successful.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Danites ask the priest to inquire of God whether their journey will succeed. They seek divine approval through an illegitimate shrine.
Overview
The spies want a religious sanction for their venture, but they seek it from an unauthorized priest serving before forbidden images. Their request shows a desire for God's blessing divorced from God's appointed means and obedience. The episode portrays a people who want assurance from God while ignoring His clear commands about how He is to be worshiped.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Kgs 22:5Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for Yahweh’s word.”
- Acts 8:10to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is that great power of God.”
- Isa 30:1“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
- Hos 4:12My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.
- Judg 17:5The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
- Judg 18:14Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.”
- Ezek 21:21For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.
- 2 Kgs 16:15King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering, his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.”
- Judg 17:13Then Micah said, “Now know I that Yahweh will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest.”
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 18:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.