And the priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the LORDis your way wherein ye go.
The Levite priest gave his blessing to the Danite scouts for their venture when they asked him to bless it, sending them on their way in peace and assuring them that their journey was before the Lord. This belongs to the account of the Danites' expedition in which they took Micah's priest and idols, captured Laish, renamed it Dan, and established idolatrous worship there.
It stands in chapters 17-21, which record events that occurred in the early part of the history of the judges, though they are placed at the end of the book whose main narrative ends with chapter 16. It is part of the account of Israel's backsliding and spiritual and moral disorder in the period when people did what was right in their own eyes, with the events of the chapter revealing how far that disorder had spread and leading to disgrace and punishment.
The account of backsliding in which the verse stands does not excuse the sin involved and does not show that sin can be done with impunity. Those whom God used for the deliverance of His people were the very best material at hand, sometimes very crude and rough as in the case of Samson, and are not set before us as examples to follow.
The Levite priest gave his blessing to the Danite scouts for their venture when they asked him to bless it, sending them on their way in peace and assuring them that their journey was before the Lord. This belongs to the account of the Danites' expedition in which they took Micah's priest and idols, captured Laish, renamed it Dan, and established idolatrous worship there.
It stands in chapters 17-21, which record events that occurred in the early part of the history of the judges, though they are placed at the end of the book whose main narrative ends with chapter 16. It is part of the account of Israel's backsliding and spiritual and moral disorder in the period when people did what was right in their own eyes, with the events of the chapter revealing how far that disorder had spread and leading to disgrace and punishment.
The account of backsliding in which the verse stands does not excuse the sin involved and does not show that sin can be done with impunity. Those whom God used for the deliverance of His people were the very best material at hand, sometimes very crude and rough as in the case of Samson, and are not set before us as examples to follow.