The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in.

So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah.

Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”

He said to them, “Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest.”

And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The presence of the Lord be with you on your way.”

Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took 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.

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?”

And they said to him, “Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us; 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?”

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.

So he said, “You have taken away my 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?’ ”

Danites Settle in Laish

So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged to him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.

Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.