(When the territory of the Danites was lost to them, they went up and attacked Leshem, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it. They settled in Leshem and named it Dan after their ancestor.)

The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain.

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.

The Danites Settle in Laish

In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

So the Danites sent five of their leading men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all the Danites. They told them, “Go, explore the land.” So they entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.

When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their fellow Danites asked them, “How did you find things?”

Then six hundred men of the Danites, armed for battle, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol.

Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their fellow Danites, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do.”

The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate.

When they had gone some distance from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites.

As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?”

The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”

So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home.

There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there.

There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land.