Micah’s Idols

17 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim²said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.”

Then his mother said, “The LORD bless you, my son!”

³When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.”

⁴So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house.

⁵Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest.⁶In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

⁷A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah,⁸left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

⁹Micah asked him, “Where are you from?”

“I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I’m looking for a place to stay.”

¹⁰Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.”¹¹So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.¹²Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.¹³And Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.”

The Danites Settle in Laish

18 In those days Israel had no king.

And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.²So the Danites sent five of their leading men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all the Danites. They told them, “Go, explore the land.”

So they entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.³When they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?”

⁴He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, “He has hired me and I am his priest.”

⁵Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.”

⁶The priest answered them, “Go in peace. Your journey has the LORD’s approval.”

⁷So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, at peace and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.

⁸When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their fellow Danites asked them, “How did you find things?”

⁹They answered, “Come on, let’s attack them! We have seen the land, and it is very good. Aren’t you going to do something? Don’t hesitate to go there and take it over.¹⁰When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land that God has put into your hands, a land that lacks nothing whatever.”

¹¹Then six hundred men of the Danites, armed for battle, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol.¹²On their way they set up camp near Kiriath Jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is called Mahaneh Dan to this day.¹³From there they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house.

¹⁴Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their fellow Danites, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do.”¹⁵So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him.¹⁶The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate.¹⁷The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods while the priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance of the gate.

¹⁸When the five men went into Micah’s house and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?”²⁰The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people.²¹Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left.

²²When they had gone some distance from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites.²³As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?”

²⁴He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’”

²⁵The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”²⁶So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home.

²⁷Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city.²⁸There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob.

The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there.²⁹They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish.³⁰There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land.³¹They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

⁴“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?¹¹Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.¹²I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?¹³No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,¹⁵that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Psalm 104

104 Praise the LORD, my soul.

LORD my God, you are very great;
    you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

²The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
³    and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
    and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴He makes winds his messengers,
    flames of fire his servants.

⁵He set the earth on its foundations;
    it can never be moved.
⁶You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷But at your rebuke the waters fled,
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
⁸they flowed over the mountains,
    they went down into the valleys,
    to the place you assigned for them.
⁹You set a boundary they cannot cross;
    never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
    it flows between the mountains.
¹¹They give water to all the beasts of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹²The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
¹³He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
    the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
¹⁴He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth:
¹⁵wine that gladdens human hearts,
    oil to make their faces shine,
    and bread that sustains their hearts.
¹⁶The trees of the LORD are well watered,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷There the birds make their nests;
    the stork has its home in the junipers.
¹⁸The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
    the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

¹⁹He made the moon to mark the seasons,
    and the sun knows when to go down.
²⁰You bring darkness, it becomes night,
    and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
²¹The lions roar for their prey
    and seek their food from God.
²²The sun rises, and they steal away;
    they return and lie down in their dens.
²³Then people go out to their work,
    to their labor until evening.

²⁰The poor are shunned even by their neighbors,
    but the rich have many friends.

²¹It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor,
    but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.