The Judges & Ruth

yea, the five men, those going to traverse the land, go up--they have come in thither--they have taken the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image--and the priest is standing at the opening of the gate, and the six hundred men who are girded with weapons of war--

yea, these have entered the house of Micah, and take the graven image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest saith unto them, `What are ye doing?'

and they say to him, `Keep silent, lay thy hand on thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us for a father and for a priest: is it better thy being a priest to the house of one man, or thy being priest to a tribe and to a family in Israel?'

And the heart of the priest is glad, and he taketh the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and goeth into the midst of the people,

and they turn and go, and put the infants, and the cattle, and the baggage, before them.

They have been far off from the house of Micah--and the men who are in the houses which are near the house of Micah have been called together, and overtake the sons of Dan,

and call unto the sons of Dan, and they turn round their faces, and say to Micah, `What--to thee that thou hast been called together?'

And he saith, `My gods which I made ye have taken, and the priest, and ye go; and what to me more? and what is this ye say unto me, What--to thee!'

And the sons of Dan say unto him, `Let not thy voice be heard with us, lest men bitter in soul fall upon you, and thou hast gathered thy life, and the life of thy household;'

and the sons of Dan go on their way, and Micah seeth that they are stronger than he, and turneth, and goeth back unto his house.

And they have taken that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and come in against Laish, against a people quiet and confident, and smite them by the mouth of the sword, and the city have burnt with fire,

and there is no deliverer, for it is far off from Zidon, and they have no word with any man, and it is in the valley which is by Beth-Rehob; and they build the city, and dwell in it,

and call the name of the city Dan, by the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; and yet Laish is the name of the city at the first.

And the sons of Dan raise up for themselves the graven image, and Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, he and his sons have been priests to the tribe of the Danite, till the day of the removal of the people of the land.

And they appoint for them the graven image of Micah, which he had made, all the days of the house of God being in Shiloh.

And it cometh to pass, in those days, when there is no king in Israel, that there is a man a Levite, a sojourner in the sides of the hill-country of Ephraim, and he taketh to him a wife, a concubine, out of Beth-Lehem-Judah;

and commit whoredom against him doth his concubine, and she goeth from him unto the house of her father, unto Beth-Lehem-Judah, and is there days--four months.

And her husband riseth and goeth after her, to speak unto her heart, to bring her back, and his young man is with him, and a couple of asses; and she bringeth him into the house of her father, and the father of the young woman seeth him, and rejoiceth to meet him.

And keep hold on him doth his father-in-law, father of the young woman, and he abideth with him three days, and they eat and drink, and lodge there.

And it cometh to pass, on the fourth day, that they rise early in the morning, and he riseth to go, and the father of the young woman saith unto his son-in-law, `Support thy heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward ye go on.'

And they sit and eat both of them together, and drink, and the father of the young woman saith unto the man, `Be willing, I pray thee, and lodge all night, and let thy heart be glad.'

And the man riseth to go, and his father-in-law presseth on him, and he turneth back and lodgeth there.

And he riseth early in the morning, on the fifth day, to go, and the father of the young woman saith, `Support, I pray thee, thy heart;' and they have tarried till the turning of the day, and they eat, both of them.

And the man riseth to go, he and his concubine, and his young man, and his father-in-law, father of the young woman, saith to him, `Lo, I pray thee, the day hath fallen toward evening, lodge all night, I pray thee; lo, the declining of the day! lodge here, and let thine heart be glad--and ye have risen early to-morrow for your journey, and thou hast gone to thy tent.'

And the man hath not been willing to lodge all night, and he riseth, and goeth, and cometh in till over-against Jebus (It is Jerusalem), and with him are a couple of asses saddled; and his concubine is with him.