Idols for Hire

Chapter 18 shows a whole tribe doing what was right in its own eyes. The Danites still had no settled inheritance, so they sent five men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol to search the land. At Micah's house they recognized the Levite and asked him to consult God. He answered, Go in peace. Your way is before Yahweh.

At Laish the spies found a people quiet and secure, far from the Sidonians, with no one to defend them. They urged their brothers not to be slothful. Six hundred armed men set out, camped at a place later called Mahaneh Dan, and came to Micah's house. While the warriors stood at the gate, the five spies carried off the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image.

The Levite protested until they offered him a tribe instead of one household; then his heart was glad, and he took the idols himself. Micah pursued, crying that they had taken the gods he made and asking what more he had. The Danites warned him to be silent or lose his life. Dan struck Laish and burned it, rebuilt it as Dan, and set up the image. Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons served as priests there until the captivity. Even a descendant of Moses had joined in false worship.