1. Judges 5:17 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Were the Danites seafarers?

Judges 5:17 (ESV)

17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings.

The reproach they receive for staying with the ships does not mean that they were seafarers. It probably means that they traded with Phoenician navigators at Joppa (Joshua 19:46), which is where their territory touched the coast.1