Discovery BoxJudges 18:11-20 
Context18:11 So six hundred Danites, fully armed, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. 1 18:12 They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. 2 It is west 3 of Kiriath Jearim.) 18:13 From there they traveled through the Ephraimite hill country and arrived at Micah’s house. 18:14 The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish 4 said to their kinsmen, 5 “Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do.” 18:15 They stopped 6 there, went inside the young Levite’s house (which belonged to Micah), 7 and asked him how he was doing. 8 18:16 Meanwhile the six hundred Danites, fully armed, stood at the entrance to the gate. 9 18:17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole 10 the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men. 11 18:18 When these men broke into Micah’s house and stole 12 the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 18:19 They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser 13 and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” 14 18:20 The priest was happy. He took the ephod, the personal idols, and the carved image and joined the group. 15
1 tn Heb “They journeyed from there, from the tribe of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men, equipped with weapons of war.”
2 tn Or “Mahaneh Dan”; the Hebrew term “Mahaneh” means “camp [of].” Many English versions retain the transliterated Hebrew expression, but cf. CEV “Dan’s Camp.”
3 tn Heb “behind.”
4 tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX lacks the phrase “of Laish.”
5 tn Heb “brothers.”
6 tn Heb “turned aside.”
7 tn Heb “Micah’s house.”
8 tn Heb “they asked him concerning peace.”
9 tn Heb “And the six hundred men, equipped with the weapons of war…from the sons of Dan.”
10 tn Heb “went up, went in there, took.”
11 tn Heb “six hundred men, equipped with the weapons of war.”
12 tn Heb “These went into Micah’s house and took.”
13 tn See the note on the word “adviser” in 17:10.
14 tn Heb “Is it better for you to be priest for the house of one man or for you to be priest for a tribe, for a clan in Israel?”
15 tn Heb “and went into the midst of the people.”
