The Levite tells them to go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.
He knows what to say to these spies. He tells them what they want to hear. Yet his words are ultimately meaningless; literally, he says in part, In front of the Lord is your way in which you are going.
This is as vague and ambiguous as the oracle of Delphi and other oracles in Scripture (for example, the oracle repeated three times, in 1 Kings 22:6, 1 Kings 22:12, 1 Kings 22:15). It could mean either that the journey has the approval of the Lord’s watchful eye, or the opposite, that the actions of the spies are in full view of the Lord and under his critical evaluation.1 The Lord might be for or against the Danites’ endeavour.
But the latter must be very much the case, even though this is undoubtedly not what the Levite meant. What is most striking about all this is that the narrator presents things in such a way that it sounds like the Levite did not even bother to consult the deity. The Danites’ request is immediately followed by the priest’s glib, vague declaration.
This is all very profane. Had not the Lord assigned the Danites a different territory? Would the Lord then authorize a slaughter of the town of Laish, and the subsequent setting up of a rival cult at Dan?! This is sheer blasphemy. This priest was taking the Lord’s name in vain to tell the Danites what they wanted to hear. Every man is doing what is right in his own eyes.
6 And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the LORD.”