Danites Seek Territory

18 ^(A)In those days there was no king of Israel; and ^(B)in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day ^[a]an inheritance had not ^[b]been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. ² So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, ^[c]valiant men from ^(C)Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it; and they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” And they came to ^(D)the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and stayed overnight there. ³ When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?” ⁴ He said to them, “Micah has done this and that for me, and he has hired me and ^(E)I have become his priest.” ⁵ Then they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be successful.” ⁶ And the priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going ^[d]has the Lord’s approval.”

⁷ So the five men departed and came to ^(F)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 ^[e]oppressive ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. ⁸ When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, “What do you say?” ⁹ 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 ^[f]sit still? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to take possession of the land. ¹⁰ When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people with a spacious land; for God has handed it over to you, ^(G)a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

¹¹ Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out. ¹² They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place ^[g](H)Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is ^[h]west of Kiriath-jearim. ¹³ And they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

Danites Take Micah’s Idols

¹⁴ Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish ^[i]said to their kinsmen, “Do you know that there are in these houses ^(I)an ephod and ^[j]household idols, and a carved image and a cast metal image? Now then, consider what you should do.” ¹⁵ So they turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked ^[k]him how he was doing. ¹⁶ Meanwhile, the six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, were positioned at the entrance of the gate. ¹⁷ Now the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there; they took ^(J)the carved image, the ephod, the ^[l]household idols, and the cast metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. ¹⁸ When these men entered Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, ^[m]household idols, and the cast metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” ¹⁹ And they said to him, “Be silent, ^(K)put your hand over your mouth, and go with us, and be to us ^(L)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?” ²⁰ The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the ^[n]household idols, and the carved image, and went among the people.

²¹ Then they turned and left, and put the children, the livestock, and the valuables in front of them. ²² When they had distanced themselves from Micah’s house, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house assembled by command and overtook the sons of Dan. ²³ Then they called out to the sons of Dan, who turned ^[o]around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you have assembled together?” ²⁴ And he said, “You have taken my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away; what more do I have? So how can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’” ²⁵ Then the sons of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, or else ^[p]fierce men will attack you, and you will ^[q]lose your life and the lives of your household.” ²⁶ 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.

²⁷ Then they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and came to ^(M)Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire. ²⁸ And there was no one to save them, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near ^(N)Beth-rehob. So they rebuilt the city and lived in it. ²⁹ And ^(O)they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born to Israel; however, the name of the city was previously Laish. ³⁰ The sons of Dan set up for themselves ^(P)the carved image; and Jonathan, the son of ^(Q)Gershom, the son of ^[r]Manasseh, ^(R)he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. ³¹ So they set up for themselves Micah’s carved image which he had made, all the time that the ^(S)house of God was in Shiloh.

Paul’s Defense before the Jews

22 “^(A)[a]Brothers and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.”

² And when they heard that he was addressing them in the ^[b](B)Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he *said,

³ “^(C)I am ^(D)a Jew, born in ^(E)Tarsus of ^(F)Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated ^[c]under ^(G)Gamaliel, ^[d](H)strictly according to the Law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as ^(I)you all are today. ^4 (J)I persecuted this ^(K)Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, ⁵ as also ^(L)the high priest and all ^(M)the Council of the elders ^[e]can testify. From them I also ^(N)received letters to ^(O)the brothers, and started off for ^(P)Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem ^[f]as prisoners to be punished.

⁶ “^(Q)But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus at about noon, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, ⁷ and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ⁸ And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am ^(R)Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ ⁹ And those who were with me ^(S)saw the light, but ^(T)did not ^[g]understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ And I said, ‘^(U)What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything that has been appointed for you to do.’ ¹¹ But since I ^(V)could not see because of the ^[h]brightness of that light, I came into Damascus being led by the hand by those who were with me.

¹² “Now a certain ^(W)Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law and ^(X)well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, ¹³ came to me, and standing nearby he said to me, ‘^(Y)Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And ^[i](Z)at that very moment I looked up at him. ¹⁴ And he said, ‘^(AA)The God of our fathers has ^(AB)appointed you to know His will and to ^(AC)see the ^(AD)Righteous One and to hear a ^[j]message from His mouth. ¹⁵ For you will be ^(AE)a witness for Him to all people of ^(AF)what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ Now why do you delay? ^(AG)Get up and be baptized, and ^(AH)wash away your sins by ^(AI)calling on His name.’

¹⁷ “It happened when I ^(AJ)returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I ^(AK)fell into a trance, ¹⁸ and I saw Him saying to me, ‘^(AL)Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ ¹⁹ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another ^(AM)I used to imprison and ^(AN)beat those who believed in You. ²⁰ And ^(AO)when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing nearby and approving, and watching over the cloaks of those who were killing him.’ ²¹ And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away ^(AP)to the Gentiles.’”

²² They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^(AQ)Away with such a man from the earth, for ^(AR)he should not be allowed to live!” ²³ And as they were shouting and ^(AS)throwing off their cloaks and ^(AT)tossing dust into the air, ²⁴ the commander ordered that he be brought into ^(AU)the barracks, saying that he was to be ^(AV)interrogated by flogging so that he would find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. ²⁵ But when they stretched him out ^[k]with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ^[l]lawful for you to flog ^(AW)a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” ²⁶ When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.” ²⁷ The commander came and said to ^[m]Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸ The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.” ²⁹ Therefore, those who were about to ^(AX)interrogate him immediately backed away from him; and the commander also ^(AY)was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had ^[n](AZ)put him in chains.

³⁰ Now on the next day, ^(BA)wanting to know for certain why Paul had been accused by the Jews, he ^(BB)released him and ordered the chief priests and all ^(BC)the ^[o]Council to assemble, and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.