The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land. They came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.
In Judges 18:1 the NASB and NIV translators have implied that the following incident happened before the Danites had received their tribal inheritance (Joshua 19:40-48). If true, this statement would date the incident that follows during the days of Joshua. The AV and NKJV versions imply that the Danites had not yet subdued and fully occupied their allotted tribal territory. In this case the incident probably happened after Joshua’s death. The Hebrew text reads literally, "there had not fallen to them by that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel an inheritance." Many of the commentators prefer the second view. [Note: E.g., Bush, p. 223; Cundall and Morris, p. 187; Wood, Distressing Days . . ., p. 148; Keil and Delitzsch, p. 434; Inrig, pp. 277-78; and Block, Judges . . ., pp. 493-94.] In either case the incident shows the Danites’ dissatisfaction with their condition. They either did not wait for God to give them what He had promised (cf. Joshua 13:1-7), or they were unwilling to fight the Amorites so they could inhabit it (cf. Judges 1:34). They felt that they did not have an adequate inheritance. They then sent a group of five men to investigate the possibilities of other land that might be available to them in other parts of Canaan.