Judges 18: The Danites take Micah's priest and his images, and Laish becomes Dan

In plain English: In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites was looking for an inheritance (land of its own) to live in, because until that day no inheritance had fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

Good to know: "There was no king in Israel" is the narrator's comment again (see the note on 17:6). In Joshua 19:40 to 48 the seventh lot came out for Dan, and the cities of its inheritance are listed. This verse says that until that day no inheritance had fallen to them. The text does not explain how the two fit together, and readers explain it in different ways.

In plain English: So the Danites sent five men from their clan, from their whole number (literally: from their ends), brave men (this Bible: men of valor), from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They told them, "Go, explore the land!" They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to Micah's house, and spent the night there.

In plain English: When they were near Micah's house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. So they turned aside there and asked him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?"

In plain English: He told them, "Micah has done this and that for me (literally: like this and like this). He has hired me, and I have become his priest."

In plain English: They said to him, "Please ask God, so that we may know whether the journey we are on will succeed."

In plain English: The priest told them, "Go in peace. The journey you are on is before Yahweh."

In plain English: Then the five men went on and came to Laish. They saw that the people there lived in safety, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. No one in the land held power over them (this Bible: possessing authority; literally: possessing restraint) to put them to shame in anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone else.

In plain English: They came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brothers asked them, "What do you have to say?"

In plain English: They said, "Get up, let's go up against them! We have seen the land, and it is very good. Are you just going to sit still? Do not be slow to go and enter the land and take it.

In plain English: When you go, you will come to a people who suspect nothing (or: who feel secure), and the land is wide (literally: wide of both hands). God has given it into your hand: a place that lacks nothing on earth."

In plain English: So six hundred men of the clan of the Danites set out from there, from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.

In plain English: They went up and camped at Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why that place is called Mahaneh Dan to this day. It is behind Kiriath Jearim.

The Hebrew word: The text itself gives the reason for the name: the Danites camped there. "Mahaneh" is the word machaneh, which the dictionary gives as "an encampment", so the name is "Dan's camp" (the old Greek, Brenton, says "the camp of Dan"). Mahaneh Dan is named earlier in Samson's story, "between Zorah and Eshtaol" (13:25).

In plain English: From there they passed on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah's house.

In plain English: Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, "Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, teraphim, a carved image, and a molten image? So now think about what you should do."

In plain English: They turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, at Micah's house, and asked how he was (literally: asked him about peace).

In plain English: The six hundred Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood at the entrance of the gate.

In plain English: The five men who had gone to spy out the land went up and went in there. They took the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.

In plain English: When these men went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, "What are you doing?"

In plain English: They said to him, "Be quiet! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us. Be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a clan in Israel?"

In plain English: The priest was glad (literally: the priest's heart was good). He took the ephod, the teraphim, and the carved image, and went along among the people.

In plain English: So they turned and went on, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them.

In plain English: When they had gone a good way from Micah's house, the men who lived in the houses near Micah's house were called together, and they caught up with the Danites.

In plain English: They shouted to the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, "What is the matter with you, that you have come with such a crowd?"

In plain English: He said, "You have taken my gods that I made, and the priest, and gone away! What do I have left? How can you ask me, 'What is the matter with you?'"

In plain English: The Danites said to him, "Do not let us hear your voice, or angry men (literally: men bitter of soul) will attack you, and you will lose your life, and the lives of your household."

In plain English: The Danites went on their way. When Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back home.

In plain English: They took what Micah had made, and the priest he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting. They struck them with the sword (literally: with the mouth of the sword) and burned the city with fire.

In plain English: There was no one to rescue them (this Bible: no deliverer), because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone else. It was in the valley near Beth Rehob. They rebuilt the city and lived in it.

In plain English: They named the city Dan, after their ancestor (literally: their father) Dan, who was born to Israel. But the city used to be called Laish.

Good to know: Joshua 19:47 tells in one verse how the Danites fought against Leshem, took it, and called it Dan, "after the name of Dan their forefather". This chapter says the same of Laish.

In plain English: The Danites set up the carved image for themselves. Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Moses (or: the son of Manasseh), he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day the land went into captivity.

The Hebrew word: This Bible says "the son of Moses". The Hebrew text in this collection says "the son of Manasseh", and so does the old Greek (Brenton). In Hebrew the two names are one letter apart: Mosheh (Moses) and Menashsheh (Manasseh), which has one more letter.

What changes: Read as "Moses", this priest is a grandson of Moses: Gershom is the name of Moses' son (Exodus 2:22 and 18:3). Read as "Manasseh", his grandfather is a man named Manasseh. The text says nothing more about him, and readers differ on which name was written first.

Good to know: The young Levite of chapters 17 and 18 is not named before this verse. Many readers take Jonathan to be him; the text does not say so outright. It also does not say which captivity it means.

In plain English: So they set up for themselves the carved image Micah had made, and it stayed there all the time that God's house was at Shiloh.

Good to know: The Tent of Meeting was set up at Shiloh in Joshua 18:1. The verse says the Danites kept Micah's carved image for all that time.