And the coast of the children of Dan went out too 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.
The coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them. The only patch of the land that remained unappropriated was the central but narrow and mountainous region which projected on the western side of Judah into the territory of the Philistines, and it was assigned to the Danites. Besides the natural smallness of the extent, it was liable to be diminished by the frequent and predatory incursions of the Amorites (Judges 1:34), so that it proved entirely inadequate to the requirements of the tribe; and their leaders were compelled to look out for some additional territory, which was at length acquired in the northern extremity of Canaan, to look out for some additional territory, which was at length acquired in the northern extremity of Canaan, (see the note at Judges 18:1-31.)
The original allotment of this tribe was the most open and exposed in the whole country, not only on the side of the sea, where Jaffa might easily serve as a point of debarkation for foreign invaders, but especially on the side of the Philistines; because the plain of Sharon was only a continuation of their territory, and there was no kind of barrier between it and the Shephelah. Thus Dan was roused by the attach of his restless enemies to act as "a young lion" (Deuteronomy 33:2) in guarding this weak frontier of the land of Israel; and most valiantly did he guard it. In fact, his vigilance being wholly directed toward that point of interest, he did not furnish the expected contingent in support of his oppressed brethren in other provinces; and for his apparent want of patriotism was denounced in the triumphant paean of Deborah (Judges 5:17). The only enemy he recognized or thought of encountering were the Philistines; and though they were his superiors both in numbers and in physical forces, he often defeated them by his ingenious stratagems and sudden surprises (Genesis 49:17).
Therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem. The Danites, finding their inheritance too small, meditated enlarging its boundaries by the sword; and having conquered Leshem (Laish), planted a colony there, calling the new settlement by the name of Dan, now Tell el-Kady (the hill of the judges). See the note at Judges 18:1-31.