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He said to them, "Micah has done this and that for me, and he has hired me and I have become his priest."

So the five men departed and came to Laish, and saw the people who were in it living in security, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting; for there was no oppressive ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

And they said, "Arise, and let's go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to take possession of the land.

"When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people with a spacious land; for God has handed it over to you, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth."

And they said to him, "Be silent, put your hand over your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?"

So the sons of Dan went on their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

The sons of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.

So they set up for themselves Micah's carved image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Now it came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah.

But his concubine found him repugnant, and she left him and went to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and remained there for a period of four months.

His father-in-law, the girl's father, prevailed upon him, and he remained with him for three days. So they ate and drank and stayed there.

When the man got up to go, along with his concubine and servant, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, "Behold now, the day has drawn to a close; please spend the night. Behold, the day is coming to an end; spend the night here so that your heart may be cheerful. Then tomorrow you may arise early for your journey and go home."

They turned aside there to enter and spend the night in Gibeah. When they entered, they sat down in the public square of the city, for no one took them into his house to spend the night.

And he said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, for I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah. But I am now going to my house, and no one will take me into his house.

"Yet there is both straw and feed for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, and your female slave, and the young man who is with your servants; there is no lack of anything."

"And I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout the land of Israel's inheritance; for they have committed an outrageous sin and vile act in Israel.

"And we will take ten men out of a hundred throughout the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to supply provisions for the people, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may punish them for all the vile sin that they have committed in Israel."

Now the sons of Israel set out, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God and said, "Who shall go up first for us to battle against the sons of Benjamin?" Then the LORD said, "Judah shall go up first."

The men of Israel went to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel lined up for battle against them at Gibeah.

But the people, the men of Israel, showed themselves courageous and lined up for battle again in the place where they had lined themselves up on the first day.