Judges 18:14-27

Revised Geneva Translation

¹⁴ Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, “Do you not know that there is, in these houses, an ephod and teraphim and a graven and a molten image? Now, therefore, consider what you have to do.”

¹⁵ And they turned that way and came to the house of the young Levite man, to the house of Micah, and greeted him peaceably.

¹⁶ And the six hundred men, appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

¹⁷ Then the five men who went to spy out the land went in there and took the graven image and the ephod and the teraphim and the molten image. And the priest stood in the entrance of the gate, with the six hundred men who were appointed with weapons of war.

¹⁸ And the other went into Micah’s house and fetched the graven image, the ephod and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ And they answered him, “Hold your peace. Lay your hand upon your mouth and come with us to be our father and priest. Which is better: that you should be a priest to the house of one man or that you should be a priest to a tribe and to a family in Israel?”

²⁰ And the priest’s heart was glad. And he took the ephod and the teraphim and the graven image and went among the people.

²¹ And they turned and departed and put the children and the cattle and the substance before them.

²² When they were far away from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and pursued after the children of Dan

²³ and cried to the children of Dan, who turned their faces and said to Micah, “What ails you that you make such an outcry?”

²⁴ And he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone your ways. And what more do I have? How, then, can you say to me, ‘What ails you?’”

²⁵ And the children of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest our angry friends run upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household.”

²⁶ So the children of Dan went their ways. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷ And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came to Laish, to that quiet and trusting people, and struck them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.