¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear his sheep,^(A) Rachel stole her father’s household gods.^(B)

¹³ Then Michal took an idol^(A) and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.

⁴ For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince,^(A) without sacrifice^(B) or sacred stones,^(C) without ephod^(D) or household gods.^(E)

³⁰ Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household.^(A) But why did you steal^(B) my gods?^(C)”

²¹ For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He will cast lots^(A) with arrows, he will consult his idols,^(B) he will examine the liver.^(C)

² So Jacob said to his household^(A) and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods^(B) you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.^(C)

¹⁴ Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish^(A) said to their fellow Danites, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod,^(B) some household gods and an image overlaid with silver?^(C) Now you know what to do.” ¹⁵ So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him. ¹⁶ The six hundred Danites,^(D) armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate. ¹⁷ The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods^(E) while the priest and the six hundred armed men^(F) stood at the entrance of the gate.

¹⁸ When the five men went into Micah’s house and took^(G) the idol, the ephod and the household gods,^(H) the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ They answered him, “Be quiet!^(I) Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest.^(J) Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan^(K) in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?” ²⁰ The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people. ²¹ Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left.

²² When they had gone some distance from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites. ²³ 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?”

²⁴ He replied, “You took^(L) the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’”

⁴ So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels^[a] of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol.^(A) And it was put in Micah’s house.

⁵ Now this man Micah had a shrine,^(B) and he made an ephod^(C) and some household gods^(D) and installed^(E) one of his sons as his priest.^(F)

³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household gods^(A) and put them inside her camel’s saddle^(B) and was sitting on them. Laban searched^(C) through everything in the tent but found nothing.