¹⁷ The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods^(A) while the priest and the six hundred armed men^(B) stood at the entrance of the gate.

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.”

² So the Danites^(A) sent five of their leading men^(B) from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out^(C) the land and explore it. These men represented all the Danites. They told them, “Go, explore the land.”^(D)

So they entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah,^(E) where they spent the night.

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)

Gods of Babylon

¹⁸ They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods^(A) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.^{(B) 19} Now, Lord our God, deliver^(C) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms^(D) of the earth may know^(E) that you alone, Lord, are God.”

² the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners^(A) and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”

³ They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift;^(B) by all means send a guilt offering^(C) to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand^(D) has not been lifted from you.”

⁴ The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”

They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number^(E) of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague^(F) has struck both you and your rulers. ⁵ Make models of the tumors^(G) and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory^(H) to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. ⁶ Why do you harden^(I) your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them,^(J) did they^(K) not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?

⁷ “Now then, get a new cart^(L) ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked.^(M) Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. ⁸ Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, ⁹ but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh,^(N) then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”