John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 18:2
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 sent from the borders of the tribe, the extreme parts of it, as the word may signify, where perhaps they were the most pressed and overcrowded: Zorah and... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 18:1-6
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 was no king in Israel to rule over them, Jdg. 18:1. It lay a great way off, separate from the rest of their tribe; it was entirely in... read more