Chapter 18

The Danites send men to seek an inheritance—They take Micah’s images and priest, burn the city of Laish, and set up idolatry.

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






 ¶Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt acareless, after the manner of the Zidonians, bquiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.


 And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye astill? be not bslothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.

 10 When ye go, ye shall come unto a people asecure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth.

 11 ¶And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men aappointed with weapons of war.

 12 And they went up, and pitched in aKirjath-jearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place bMahaneh-dan unto this day: behold, it is behind Kirjath-jearim.






 18 And these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the ateraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?

 19 And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine ahand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a bpriest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?








 27 And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at aquiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.



 30 ¶And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of aManasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

 31 And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the ahouse of God was in bShiloh.