So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.
The word carriage in the verse means baggage or things carried, not a wheeled vehicle. Chapters 17-21, to which the verse belongs, record events from the early part of the history of the judges, coming after the main story that ends with chapter 16. The verse describes the Danites placing their little ones, cattle, and baggage or belongings ahead of themselves, with the armed men behind, as they departed. Their departure was from Micah's house and belonged to their seizure of his religious objects and removal of his Levite priest in order to establish worship in Dan.
The migration described in the verse was undertaken to seize Laish. After taking Laish, the Danites made it Dan and established idolatrous worship there. By establishing idolatrous worship at Dan, they created the setting in which Jeroboam later set up a golden calf. The verse stands in the sad record of Israel's backsliding and constant lapsing into idolatry, which shows that backsliding cannot be done with impunity and that the men God used for deliverance, though the best material at hand and sometimes crude and rough as Samson, were not set before us as examples to follow.
The word carriage in the verse means baggage or things carried, not a wheeled vehicle. Chapters 17-21, to which the verse belongs, record events from the early part of the history of the judges, coming after the main story that ends with chapter 16. The verse describes the Danites placing their little ones, cattle, and baggage or belongings ahead of themselves, with the armed men behind, as they departed. Their departure was from Micah's house and belonged to their seizure of his religious objects and removal of his Levite priest in order to establish worship in Dan.
The migration described in the verse was undertaken to seize Laish. After taking Laish, the Danites made it Dan and established idolatrous worship there. By establishing idolatrous worship at Dan, they created the setting in which Jeroboam later set up a golden calf. The verse stands in the sad record of Israel's backsliding and constant lapsing into idolatry, which shows that backsliding cannot be done with impunity and that the men God used for deliverance, though the best material at hand and sometimes crude and rough as Samson, were not set before us as examples to follow.