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Judges 18:1
In those daysthere was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that dayall their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.

Joshua 19:47
And the coast of the children of Dan went outtoo little for them: therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.

and did not allow them to come down into the plain.
The plains were agriculturally rich and strategically important, making them highly coveted. The Amorites' control over the plains prevented the Danites from accessing these resources, highlighting the Danites' failure to fully trust in God's promise and power to deliver their enemies into their hands. This situation foreshadows the later migration of the Danites to the north, as recorded inJudges 18, where they sought a more secure and prosperous territory. The inability to settle in the plains also serves as a reminder of the consequences of disobedience and lack of faith, as God had promised victory if the Israelites remained faithful to His commands.

They were one of the principal peoples of Canaan—well–established, militarily strong, and notorious for idolatry. Long before Israel entered the land, God had warned that the Amorites’ sin would eventually merit judgment (Genesis 15:16). Though Joshua defeated many Amorite kings (Joshua 24:8), pockets of resistance remained, particularly in the rugged western foothills (Numbers 21:25–26).Judges 1:34 shows that these remnants still wielded enough power to dominate a whole tribe.

The tribe of Dan had been allotted fertile territory along the coast (Joshua 19:40–46). Yet instead of forcing the Amorites out as God commanded (Deuteronomy 7:2), Dan found itself pushed back. This reversal highlights two realities:

• Dan’s incomplete obedience and lack of faith (Judges 2:2–3).

• God’s warning that disobedience would lead to oppression (Leviticus 26:16–17).

Later, Dan would abandon its inheritance altogether and migrate north (Judges 18:1, 27–29).

Driven from the coast, Dan took refuge in difficult highland terrain. Hills offered natural defense (cf.Judges 6:2, where Israelites hid from Midianites), but they also limited agriculture and trade. What should have been broad, fruitful lowlands became narrow, survival-oriented living. The scene foreshadows the contrast between life in God’s full promise and life marked by compromise.

This phrase paints a picture of ongoing, active control. The Amorites dictated where Dan could and could not go—an everyday reminder of lost freedom. God had intended Israel to be “the head and not the tail” (Deuteronomy 28:13), yet here the roles are reversed because of unbelief (Judges 2:14). The oppression was persistent until the house of Joseph later gained strength and pressed the Amorites into forced labor (Judges 1:35).

The plains of the Shephelah were fertile, strategic, and ideal for iron chariots (Judges 1:19;Joshua 17:16). Whoever controlled the lowlands controlled commerce and harvests. By barring Dan from the plains, the Amorites cut the tribe off from:

• Rich farmland that could sustain large populations.

• Major trade routes running north and south.

• A springboard for further conquest toward the coast, later dominated by the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:1).

Dan’s inability to access the plains underscores the cost of partial obedience: loss of blessing and diminished influence.

Judges 1:34 shows that when God’s people fail to drive out entrenched sin and opposition, that very opposition gains control. The Amorites’ dominance over Dan illustrates the consequences of incomplete obedience—displacement, restriction, and forfeited blessing. God’s promises are real and literal, but they must be embraced in faith and action; otherwise, like Dan, we risk living on the margins of what He intended.

Forced.--Literally "squeezed" or "pressed."

Forced the children of Dan into the mountain.--The condition of this tribe was, therefore, the worst of all. So far from reducing under tribute the Canaanites of its assigned possession, as the central tribes did, the Danites did not even succeed in establishing a tolerated neutrality among them, like the northern tribes, but were driven into a few mountain-strongholds. It was probably this failure, and the consequent pressure of space under which the tribe laboured, which induced them to undertake the successful northern expedition alluded to inJoshua 19:47 and described in Judges 18

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