The Israelites having made this successful inroad into the land of Canaan, divided it amongst the Tribes. But the Canaanites, though panic-struck at their first approach, soon began to take heart, and the covetous policy of Israel (a policy which dictated attention to present pecuniary profits, no matter at what eventual cost to the great moral interests of the Commonwealth) had satisfied itself with making them tributaries, contrary to the command of God, that they should be driven out (Exodus 23:31); and, accordingly, they were suffered, as it was promised, to become thorns in Israel’s side, always vexing, often resisting, and sometimes oppressing them for many years together.
Meanwhile the Tribe of Dan had its lot cast near the Amorites. It struggled to work out for itself a settlement; but its fierce and warlike neighbours drove in its outposts, and succeeded in confining it to the mountains (Judges 1:34). The children of Dan became straitened in their borders, and, unable to extend them at home, “they sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, to spy out the land and to search it.”
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Author: John James Blunt
Keywords: Canaanite, Canaanites, Laish, Dan, Danites, Zidonians, Zidonian, Sidon, Sidonians
Bible reference(s): Exod. 23:31, Deut. 3:8-9, Judges 1:34, Judges 18:7
Source: Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings of the Old & New Testament (London: John Murray, 1869).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.