Judges 18:28
And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein. And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.
Laish lay in the valley by Beth-rehob, far from Zidon and having no business with any man who could come to its aid, so there was no deliverer when it was attacked. The Danites smote it, built a city on its site, and dwelt therein. They named the rebuilt city Dan. The account stands in chapters 17-21, which record events from the early part of the period of the judges, though they are placed at the end of the book after chapter 16 where the main narrative ends.
The passage belongs to the record of Israel's backsliding and the disgrace and punishment that followed. It shows the early apostasy of the tribe of Dan. That early apostasy is suggested as the reason the tribe is left out of the 144,000 sealed in Revelation 7. At the new city of Dan the Danites established idolatrous worship that continued until the captivity of the ten tribes, and this long prior idolatry made it easier for Jeroboam to set up a golden calf at Dan and turn the people there to its worship.