Judges 17-18

New American Standard Bible

Micah’s Idolatry

17 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” ³ He then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly consecrate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son ^(A)to make a carved image and a cast metal image; so now I will return ^[a]them to you.” ⁴ So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made ^[b]them into a carved image and a cast metal image, and ^[c]they were in the house of Micah. ⁵ And the man Micah had a ^[d](B)shrine and he made an ^(C)ephod and ^[e](D)household idols, and ^[f]consecrated one of his sons, ^(E)so that he might become his priest. ⁶ In those days ^(F)there was no king in Israel; ^(G)everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷ Now there was a young man from ^(H)Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was ^[g]staying there. ⁸ Then the man left the city, Bethlehem in Judah, to ^[h]stay wherever he would find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the ^(I)hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah. ⁹ Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to ^[i]stay wherever I may find a place.” ¹⁰ Micah then said to him, “Stay with me and be ^(J)a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a supply of clothing, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹ The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. ¹² So Micah ^[j]consecrated the Levite, and the young man ^(K)became his priest and ^[k]lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as a priest.”

Danites Seek Territory

18 ^(L)In those days there was no king of Israel; and ^(M)in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day ^[l]an inheritance had not ^[m]been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. ² So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, ^[n]valiant men from ^(N)Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it; and they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” And they came to ^(O)the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and stayed overnight there. ³ When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?” ⁴ He said to them, “Micah has done this and that for me, and he has hired me and ^(P)I have become his priest.” ⁵ Then they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be successful.” ⁶ And the priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going ^[o]has the Lord’s approval.”

⁷ So the five men departed and came to ^(Q)Laish, and saw the people who were in it living in security, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting; for there was no ^[p]oppressive ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. ⁸ When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you say?” ⁹ And they said, “Arise, and let’s go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you ^[q]sit still? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to take possession of the land. ¹⁰ When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people with a spacious land; for God has handed it over to you, ^(R)a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

¹¹ Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out. ¹² They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place ^[r](S)Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is ^[s]west of Kiriath-jearim. ¹³ And they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

Danites Take Micah’s Idols

¹⁴ Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish ^[t]said to their kinsmen, “Do you know that there are in these houses ^(T)an ephod and ^[u]household idols, and a carved image and a cast metal image? Now then, consider what you should do.” ¹⁵ So they turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked ^[v]him how he was doing. ¹⁶ Meanwhile, the six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, were positioned at the entrance of the gate. ¹⁷ Now the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there; they took ^(U)the carved image, the ephod, the ^[w]household idols, and the cast metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. ¹⁸ When these men entered Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, ^[x]household idols, and the cast metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” ¹⁹ And they said to him, “Be silent, ^(V)put your hand over your mouth, and go with us, and be to us ^(W)a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” ²⁰ The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the ^[y]household idols, and the carved image, and went among the people.

²¹ Then they turned and left, and put the children, the livestock, and the valuables in front of them. ²² When they had distanced themselves from Micah’s house, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house assembled by command and overtook the sons of Dan. ²³ Then they called out to the sons of Dan, who turned ^[z]around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you have assembled together?” ²⁴ And he said, “You have taken my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away; what more do I have? So how can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’” ²⁵ Then the sons of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, or else ^[aa]fierce men will attack you, and you will ^[ab]lose your life and the lives of your household.” ²⁶ So the sons of Dan went on their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷ Then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and came to ^(X)Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire. ²⁸ And there was no one to save them, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near ^(Y)Beth-rehob. So they rebuilt the city and lived in it. ²⁹ And ^(Z)they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born to Israel; however, the name of the city was previously Laish. ³⁰ The sons of Dan set up for themselves ^(AA)the carved image; and Jonathan, the son of ^(AB)Gershom, the son of ^[ac]Manasseh, ^(AC)he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. ³¹ So they set up for themselves Micah’s carved image which he had made, all the time that the ^(AD)house of God was in Shiloh.