So the people of Dan sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go and explore the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
Here is, 1. The eye which these Danites had upon Laish, not the whole tribe of Dan, but one family of them, to whose lot, in the subdivision of Canaan, that city fell. Hitherto this family had sojourned with their brethren, who had taken possession of their lot, which lay between Judah and the Philistines, and had declined going to their own city, because there...
Commenting on Judges 18:1-6
And the children of Dan sent of their family five men,.... According to Abarbinel one out of a family, as Moses sent one out of a tribe to spy the land; and so there must be five families concerned in this affair: from their coasts, men of valour from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; these men were...
Jdg 18:2 To spy out and explore the land for the object mentioned, the Danites sent out five brave men “out of their (the Danites') ends,” i.e., from their whole body (vid., 1Ki 12:31; 1Ki 13:33, and the commentary on Gen 19:4). They came up to the mountains of Ephraim, and as far as Micah’s house, where they passed the night.