Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.
The five men departed, and came to Laish - or Leshem (Joshua 19:47), supposed to have been populated by a colony of Zidonians. The place was very secluded, the soil rich in the abundance and variety of its produce, and the inhabitants, following the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, lived in their fertile and sequestered valley, according to the Zidonian style of ease and security, happy among themselves, and maintaining little or no communication with the rest of the world. The discovered of this northern paradise seemed, to the delight of the Danite spies, an accomplishment of the priest's prediction, and they hastened back to inform their brethren in the south both of the value of their prize and how easily it could be made their prey.