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Micah’s sanctuary and the Levite priest
17 Once there was a man named Micah who lived in the Ephraim highlands. 2 He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you led you to declare a curse and even to repeat it when I could hear. I have that silver. I’m the one who took it, and now I’ll give it back to you.”[a]
His mother replied, “May the Lord bless you, my son!” 3 When he gave the eleven hundred pieces of silver back to his mother, she said, “I wholeheartedly devote this silver to the Lord, to be made into a sculpted image and a molded image for my son.” 4 So he gave the silver back to his mother, and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used it for a sculpted image and a molded image. And they were placed in Micah’s house. 5 This man Micah had his own sanctuary.[b] He made a priestly vest[c] and divine images[d] and appointed one of his sons to be his personal priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right.
7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the area of the Judahite clan. He was a Levite residing there as an immigrant. 8 The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle as an immigrant wherever he could find a place. He came to Micah’s house in the Ephraim highlands while he was making his way.[e]
9 “Where are you from?” Micah asked him.
He replied, “I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m looking to settle as an immigrant anywhere I can find a place.”
10 So Micah said to him, “Stay with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I’ll give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your basic needs.”[f] 11 The Levite agreed to stay with him; and the young man became like one of his own sons. 12 Micah appointed the Levite so that the young man became his personal priest and lived in Micah’s sanctuary. 13 And Micah said to himself, Now I know that the Lord will give me good things, because a Levite has become my priest.
Dan’s search for a land
18 In those days there was no king in Israel. Also in those days the tribe of Dan was searching for a territory of their own to live in, since no permanent territory had been assigned to them among the tribes of Israel up to that point. 2 The Danites sent five men from their whole clan, strong men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy on the land and explore it. They told them, “Go explore the land.” So they went into the Ephraim highland as far as Micah’s house, and they spent the night there. 3 When they were in the area of Micah’s house, they recognized the accent of the young Levite. They turned in there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in these parts? What is there for you here?”
4 “Micah has done a lot for me,” he replied to them. “He hired me to be his personal priest.”
5 They said to him, “Ask for an answer from God so we can know whether we’ll be successful on this trip we’ve taken.”
6 The priest replied to them, “Go in peace. The Lord is watching over you on this trip you’ve taken.”
7 So the five men journeyed on until they reached Laish. There they saw that its people were living without worry in the same way as the Sidonians, undisturbed and secure. Nobody held back anything in the land, so no one had to hoard.[g] Yet they lived far away from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else.[h]
8 When the men came back to their relatives at Zorah and Eshtaol, they asked them, “What did you find?”
9 “Come on,” they replied, “let’s march up against them! Indeed, we’ve seen the land, and it’s very good. Right now you’re doing nothing! Don’t hold back from going and taking possession of the land. 10 When you arrive, you’ll come upon a secure people and a wide-open land, because God has given to you a place where nothing on earth is lacking.” 11 At this, six hundred men from the Danite clan at Zorah and Eshtaol set out armed for battle. 12 They marched up and made camp at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath-jearim is still known as Dan’s Camp today. 13 From there they crossed into the Ephraim highlands and came to Micah’s house.
Dan acquires a levitical priest
14 Then the five men who had gone to spy on the land around Laish reported to their relatives, “Did you know that there is a priestly vest, divine images, a sculpted image, and a molded image in these buildings? Now think about what you should do!” 15 So they turned in there and went to the young Levite’s house in Micah’s compound and greeted him. 16 While the six hundred Danites armed for battle stood at the entrance of the gate, 17 the five men who had gone to spy on the land moved up, went inside, and took the sculpted image, the priestly vest, the divine images, and the molded image. The priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed for battle 18 when these five entered Micah’s sanctuary and took the sculpted image, the priestly vest, the divine images, and the molded image.
The priest said to them, “What are you doing?”
19 “Shut up!” they said to him. “Put your hand over your mouth! Come with us and be a father and a priest for us. Would you rather be a priest for one man’s household or a priest for a tribe and a clan in Israel?” 20 The priest was convinced, so he took the priestly vest, the divine images, and the sculpted image and went along with the people.
21 They headed back on their way, but they put the children, the livestock, and the prized possessions in front of them. 22 After they had gone a good distance away from Micah’s house, the men who were in the houses around Micah’s home were summoned for battle and caught up to the Danites. 23 They called out to the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, “Why have you summoned men for battle?”
24 Micah replied, “You’ve taken my gods that I made, and the priest, and have gone off! What do I have left? How can you ask me what is wrong?”
25 But the Danites said to him, “Don’t raise your voice with us or else hotheaded men will attack you, and you and your household will lose your lives.” 26 Then the Danites went on their way. When Micah realized that they were too strong for him, he turned around and went home.
The Danites take possession of Laish
27 The Danites took along the things that Micah had made, as well as the priest who had been with him, and came to Laish, to a people who were undisturbed and secure. They killed the people and burned down the city. 28 No one was there to rescue them because the city was far away from Sidon and had no dealings with anyone else.[i] It was in the Beth-rehob Valley.
They rebuilt the city and settled in it. 29 They renamed the city Dan, after their ancestor Dan who had been one of Israel’s sons; but in fact, the original name of the city was Laish. 30 The Danites set up the sculpted image for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom and grandson of Moses,[j] and his sons became priests for the Danite tribe until the land went into exile. 31 They kept for themselves the sculpted image that Micah had made throughout the whole time that God’s sanctuary was in Shiloh.
Jesus and Nicodemus
3 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew,[a] it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.”
4 Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the mother’s womb for a second time and be born, isn’t it?”
5 Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 8 God’s Spirit[b] blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said, “How are these things possible?”
10 “Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things? 11 I assure you that we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you don’t receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One.[c] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One[d] be lifted up 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. 17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son.
19 “This is the basis for judgment: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil. 20 All who do wicked things hate the light and don’t come to the light for fear that their actions will be exposed to the light. 21 Whoever does the truth comes to the light so that it can be seen that their actions were done in God.”
Psalm 104
104 Let my whole being[a] bless the Lord!
Lord my God, how fantastic you are!
You are clothed in glory and grandeur!
2 You wear light like a robe;
you open the skies like a curtain.
3 You build your lofty house on the waters;
you make the clouds your chariot,
going around on the wings of the wind.
4 You make the winds your messengers;
you make fire and flame your ministers.
5 You established the earth on its foundations
so that it will never ever fall.
6 You covered it with the watery deep like a piece of clothing;
the waters were higher than the mountains!
7 But at your rebuke they ran away;
they fled in fear at the sound of your thunder.
8 They flowed over the mountains,
streaming down the valleys
to the place you established for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross
so they’ll never again cover the earth.
10 You put gushing springs into dry riverbeds.
They flow between the mountains,
11 providing water for every wild animal—
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Overhead, the birds in the sky make their home,
chirping loudly in the trees.
13 From your lofty house, you water the mountains.
The earth is filled full by the fruit of what you’ve done.
14 You make grass grow for cattle;
you make plants for human farming
in order to get food from the ground,
15 and wine, which cheers people’s hearts,
along with oil, which makes the face shine,
and bread, which sustains the human heart.
16 The Lord’s trees are well watered—
the cedars of Lebanon, which God planted,
17 where the birds make their nests,
where the stork has a home in the cypresses.
18 The high mountains belong to the mountain goats;
the ridges are the refuge of badgers.
19 God made the moon for the seasons,
and the sun too, which knows when to set.
20 You bring on the darkness and it is night,
when every forest animal prowls.
21 The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they gather together
and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go off to their work,
to do their work until evening.
24 Lord, you have done so many things!
You made them all so wisely!
The earth is full of your creations!
20 Even their neighbors hate the poor,
but many love the wealthy.
21 Those who despise their neighbors are sinners,
but happy are those who are kind to the needy.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible