Judges · 31 verses

Judges 18

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

The priest asks what the armed men are doing, hears an offer to serve a whole tribe, and is glad to leave Micah behind. It is an admirably brisk career decision, though Micah is less impressed when the new congregation also carries off his gods.

A quiet land, and a larger callingvv. 1–13

The Danites, still without an inheritance, send five men from Zorah and Eshtaol to explore. They find the young Levite at Micah’s house and ask him to inquire of God about their journey. He tells them to go in peace. At Laish they find a spacious, unworried land, with nothing lacking and no oppressive ruler. Six hundred Danites then set out, camp at Kiriath-jearim in Judah—leaving Mahaneh-dan with its name—and return to the hill country of Ephraim.

Micah’s gods acquire a tribevv. 14–26

The five spies remember that Micah’s house contains an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol. The six hundred armed men stand at the gate while the five go inside and take them. The priest objects, but the Danites offer him a grander post: priest to a tribe rather than to one household. He is glad, gathers the sacred furniture, and goes with them. Micah follows with a company, asking what remains to him after the gods and priest are gone. The answer is a threat. Seeing that the Danites are too strong, Micah turns back home.

Laish becomes Danvv. 27–31

With Micah’s idols and priest in their company, the Danites reach Laish and strike its quiet people with swords, burning the city. No one delivers them: the city is far from Sidon, has no alliance, and lies in a valley near Beth-rehob. The Danites rebuild it, live there, and name it Dan after their forefather. They set up the stolen image, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons serve as priests for the tribe. The image remains there throughout the time that the house of God is in Shiloh—a rather long residence for something acquired on the march.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Judg 18:1In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of the Danites was looking for territory to occupy. For up to that time they had not come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
Judg 18:2So the Danites sent out five men from their clans, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. “Go and explore the land,” they told them. The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.
Judg 18:3And while they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they went over and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?”
Judg 18:4“Micah has done this and that for me,” he replied, “and he has hired me to be his priest.”
Judg 18:5Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to determine whether we will have a successful journey.”
Judg 18:6And the priest told them, “Go in peace. The LORD is watching over your journey.”
Judg 18:7So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.
Judg 18:8When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What did you find?”
Judg 18:9They answered, “Come on, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Why would you fail to act? Do not hesitate to go there and take possession of the land!
Judg 18:10When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people and a spacious land, for God has delivered it into your hand. It is a place where nothing on earth is lacking.”
Judg 18:11So six hundred Danites departed from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.
Judg 18:12They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. That is why the place west of Kiriath-jearim is called Mahaneh-dan to this day.
Judg 18:13And from there they traveled to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house.
Judg 18:14Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”
Judg 18:15So they turned aside there and went to the home of the young Levite, the house of Micah, and greeted him.
Judg 18:16The six hundred Danites stood at the entrance of the gate, armed with their weapons of war.
Judg 18:17And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men.
Judg 18:18When they entered Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”
Judg 18:19“Be quiet,” they told him. “Put your hand over your mouth and come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one person or a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?”
Judg 18:20So the priest was glad and took the ephod, the household idols, and the graven image, and went with the people.
Judg 18:21Putting their small children, their livestock, and their possessions in front of them, they turned and departed.
Judg 18:22After they were some distance from Micah’s house, the men in the houses near Micah’s house mobilized and overtook the Danites.
Judg 18:23When they called out after them, the Danites turned to face them and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you that you have called out such a company?”
Judg 18:24He replied, “You took the gods I had made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”
Judg 18:25The Danites said to him, “Do not raise your voice against us, or angry men will attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”
Judg 18:26So the Danites went on their way, and Micah turned to go back home, because he saw that they were too strong for him.
Judg 18:27After they had taken Micah’s idols and his priest, they went to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people, and they struck them with their swords and burned down the city.
Judg 18:28There was no one to deliver them, because the city was far from Sidon and had no alliance with anyone; it was in a valley near Beth-rehob. And the Danites rebuilt the city and lived there.
Judg 18:29They named it Dan, after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city was formerly named Laish.
Judg 18:30The Danites set up idols for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
Judg 18:31So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 205 passages were voted onto 27 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

1 Judges 1:34The Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country and did not allow them to come down into the plain.
1 Judges 17:6In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
1 Judges 19:1Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
14 Judges 17:5Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.
27 Joshua 19:47(Later, when the territory of the Danites was lost to them, they went up and fought against Leshem, captured it, and put it to the sword. So they took possession of Leshem, settled there, and renamed it after their father Dan.)
1 Joshua 19:40–48The seventh lot came out for the clans of the tribe of Dan:
1 Judges 21:25In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
2 Judges 13:25And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
19 Job 21:5Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
19 Judges 17:10“Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be my father and priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your provisions.” So the Levite went in
19 Job 29:9The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.
24 Habakkuk 2:18–19What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
27 Judges 18:7So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.
28 2 Samuel 10:6When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zoba, as well as a thousand men from the king of Maacah and twelve thousand men from Tob.
31 Joshua 18:1Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,
2 Joshua 2:1Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

Onward

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