¹⁹ Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the ^(A)household^[a] idols that were her father’s.

¹³ And Michal took ^[a]an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes.

⁴ For the children of Israel shall abide many days ^(A)without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ^(B)ephod or ^(C)teraphim.

³⁰ And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you ^(A)steal my gods?”

²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the ^[a]images, he looks at the liver.

² And Jacob said to his ^(A)household and to all who were with him, “Put away ^(B)the foreign gods that are among you, ^(C)purify yourselves, and change your garments.

^14 (A)Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, “Do you know that ^(B)there are in these houses an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore, consider what you should do.” ¹⁵ So they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young Levite man—to the house of Micah—and greeted him. ¹⁶ The ^(C)six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. ¹⁷ Then ^(D)the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took ^(E)the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of war.

¹⁸ When these went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ And they said to him, “Be quiet, ^(F)put your hand over your mouth, and come with us; ^(G)be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?” ²⁰ So the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.

²¹ Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them. ²² When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. ²³ And they called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Micah, ^(H)“What ails you, that you have gathered such a company?”

²⁴ So he said, “You have ^(I)taken away my ^[a]gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What ails you?’ ”

⁴ Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother ^(A)took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.

⁵ The man Micah had a ^(B)shrine, and made an ^(C)ephod and ^(D)household^[a] idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the ^[a]household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban ^[b]searched all about the tent but did not find them.