They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?”
Parallel translations
- KJV And they came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said unto them, What say ye?
- BSB When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What did you find?”
- 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 18:11The family of the Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, with six hundred men armed with weapons of war.
- Judg 18:2The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
- Judg 16:31Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.
- Judg 13:2There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 18:8 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
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