What does it mean that the spies “recognized [the Levite’s] voice”?
Judges 18:3 (ESV)
3When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”
The narrator says that when the spies were by Micah’s house, they heard his priest talking and recognized his voice. That likely means they recognized his accent—Judahite, southern, like theirs, not northern Israel. They recognized him as a stranger in these parts, like themselves.1
3 When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. And they turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”