Limitless Word
When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What did you find?”
Judges 18:8 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?”
  • KJV And they came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said unto them, What say ye?
  • NKJV Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, “What is your report?”
  • NASB When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you say?”
  • NLT When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their relatives asked them, “What did you find?”

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 spies return to their tribe at Zorah and Eshtaol with a report. Their brothers eagerly ask what they found.

Overview

The Danites had failed to fully possess their southern allotment and were searching for new territory. The returning scouts are pressed for their assessment, setting up the decision to migrate north. The episode shows a tribe drifting from God's provision and taking matters into its own hands rather than seeking the Lord.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 4

  • Judg 18:11So six hundred Danites departed from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.
  • Judg 18:2So the Danites sent out five men from their clans, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. “Go and explore the land,” they told them. The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.
  • Judg 16:31Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.
  • Judg 13:2Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Judges videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Judges 18:8YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JudgesMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 18:8 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.