Judges 18:17-31

¹⁷The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.

¹⁸When these went into Micah’s house, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us. Be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?”

²⁰The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went with the people.

²¹So they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods before them.

²²When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan.

²³As they called to the children of Dan, they turned their faces, and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?”

²⁴He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’”

²⁵The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”

²⁶The children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; then they burned the city with fire.

²⁸There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone else; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city and lived in it.

²⁹They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; however the name of the city used to be Laish.

³⁰The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.

³¹So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.