The Judges & Ruth

The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he lived there.

The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled.

Micah said to him, “Where did you come from?” He said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.”

Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food.” So the Levite went in.

The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

Then Micah said, “Now know I that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite to my priest.”

In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside there, and said to him, “Who brought you here? What do you do in this place? What do you have here?”

He said to them, “Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest.”

They said to him, “Please ask counsel of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.”

The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before the LORD.”

Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were therein, how they lived in security, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land, possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with any man.

They came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brothers said to them, “What do you say?”

They said, “Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land.

When you go, you shall come to a secure people, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth.”

There set out from there of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war.

They went up, and encamped in Kiriath Jearim, in Judah: therefore they called that place Mahaneh Dan, to this day; behold, it is behind Kiriath Jearim.

They passed there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.”

They turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare.

The six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.