1. Judges 18:10 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is significant about the description of the land as “spacious”?

Judges 18:10 (ESV)

10 As soon as you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people. The land is spacious, for God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

Literally, spacious is broad of hands, which means wide on both sides. This may be somewhat suspect of a report, in light of the later reference to Laish as being located in a valley (Judges 18:28). Perhaps this is fitting with the habit of spies, who in their excitement look to persuade their hearers. No doubt the prospect of a wide land would have been very attractive to the Danites, given their confined environment where they were currently situated, in the south (Judges 1:34).