1. Judges 18:7 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does “possessing wealth” mean?

Judges 18:7 (ESV)

7 Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth, and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

Literally it says, seizing restraint, or possessing strength. The meaning is uncertain. It likely points to the fact that there were no rulers exercising oppressive, brutalizing rule over the citizens, and thus, they were possessing wealth (or NIV, they were prosperous).1