Parallel Bible results for "judges 18"

Judges 18

Good News Translation GNT

1 There was no king in Israel at that time. In those days the tribe of Dan was looking for territory to claim and settle in because they had not yet received any land of their own among the tribes of Israel.

2 So the people of Dan chose five qualified men out of all the families in the tribe and sent them from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol with instructions to explore the land and spy on it. When they arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed at Micah's house.

3 While they were there, they recognized the accent of the young Levite, so they went up to him and asked, "What are you doing here? Who brought you here?"

4 He answered, "I have an arrangement with Micah, who pays me to serve as his priest."

5 They said to him, "Please ask God if we are going to be successful on our trip."

6 The priest answered, "You have nothing to worry about. The Lord is taking care of you on this trip."

7 So the five men left and went to the town of Laish. They saw how the people there lived in security like the Sidonians. They were a peaceful, quiet people, with no argument with anyone; they had all they needed. They lived far away from the Sidonians and had no dealings with any other people.

8 When the five men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, the people asked them what they had found out.

9 "Come on," they replied. "Let's attack Laish. We saw the land, and it's very good. Don't stay here doing nothing; hurry! Go on in and take it over!

10 When you get there, you will find that the people don't suspect a thing. It is a big country; it has everything a person could want, and God has given it to you."

11 So six hundred men from the tribe of Dan left Zorah and Eshtaol, ready for battle.

12 They went up and camped west of Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why the place is still called Camp of Dan.

13 They went on from there and came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.

14 Then the five men who had gone to spy on the country around Laish said to their companions, "Did you know that here in one of these houses there is a wooden idol covered with silver? There are also other idols and an ephod. What do you think we should do?"

15 So they went into Micah's house, where the young Levite lived, and asked the Levite how he was getting along.

16 Meanwhile the six hundred Danite soldiers, ready for battle, were standing at the gate.

17 The five spies went straight on into the house and took the wooden idol covered with silver, the other idols, and the ephod, while the priest stayed at the gate with the six hundred armed men.

18 When the men went into Micah's house and took the sacred objects, the priest asked them, "What are you doing?"

19 They told him, "Keep quiet. Don't say a word. Come with us and be our priest and adviser. Wouldn't you rather be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for the family of one man?"

20 This made the priest very happy, so he took the sacred objects and went along with them.

21 They turned around and started off, with their children, their livestock, and their belongings going ahead.

22 They had traveled a good distance from the house when Micah called his neighbors out for battle. They caught up with the Danites

23 and shouted at them. The Danites turned around and asked Micah, "What's the matter? Why all this mob?"

24 Micah answered, "What do you mean, "What's the matter?' You take my priest and the gods that I made, and walk off! What have I got left?"

25 The Danites told him, "You had better not say anything else unless you want these men to get angry and attack you. You and your whole family would die."

26 Then the Danites went on. Micah saw that they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back home.

27 After the Danites had taken the priest and the things that Micah had made, they went and attacked Laish, that town of peaceful, quiet people which was in the same valley as Bethrehob. They killed the inhabitants and burned the town. There was no one to save them, because Laish was a long way from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any other people. The Danites rebuilt the town and settled down there.

29 They changed its name from Laish to Dan, after their ancestor Dan, the son of Jacob.

30 The Danites set up the idol to be worshiped, and Jonathan, the son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, served as a priest for the Danites, and his descendants served as their priests until the people were taken away into exile.

31 Micah's idol remained there as long as the Tent where God was worshiped remained at Shiloh.

World English Bible WEB

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

2 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, search the land. They came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

3 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? and what do you in this place? and what have you here?

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

5 They said to him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

6 The priest said to them, Go in peace: before Yahweh is your way wherein you go.

7 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were therein, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was none 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.

8 They came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brothers said to them, What [say] you?

9 They said, Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are you still? don't be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land.

10 When you go, you shall come to a people secure, 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.

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

12 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.

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

14 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.

15 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.

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

17 The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.

18 When these went into Micah's house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, What do you?

19 They said to him, Hold your peace, lay your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for you to be 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, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people.

21 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the goods before them.

22 When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.

23 They cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Micah, What ails you, that you come with such a company?

24 He said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then say you to me, What ails you?

25 The children of Dan said to him, "Don't let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household."

26 The children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

27 They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire.

29 They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel: however the name of the city was Laish at the first.

30 The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, 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 them up Micah's engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.