¹ In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought for themselves an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day all their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

² And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their borders, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to explore the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.

³ When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said to him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?

⁴ And he said to them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.

⁵ And they said to him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

⁶ And the priest said to them, Go in peace: before the LORD is your way in which ye Go.

⁷ Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were in it, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.

⁸ And they came to their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said to them, What say ye?

⁹ And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.

¹⁰ When ye go, ye shall come to a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is on the earth.

¹¹ And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointed with weapons of war.

¹² And they went up, and encamped in Kirjath-jearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day: behold, it is behind Kirjath-jearim.

¹³ And they passed thence to mount Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴ Then answered the five men that went to explore the country of Laish, and said to their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.

¹⁵ And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and saluted him.

¹⁶ And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

¹⁷ And the five men that went to explore the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.

¹⁸ And these went into Micah's house, and brought the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest to them, What do ye?

¹⁹ And they said to him, Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: Is it better for thee to be a priest to the house of one man, or that thou shouldst be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?

²⁰ And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.

²¹ So they turned and departed, and put the little ones, and the cattle, and the furniture before them.

²² And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were collected, and overtook the children of Dan.

²³ And they cried to the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said to Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company?

²⁴ And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye have gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say to me, What aileth thee?

²⁵ And the children of Dan said to him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows rush upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.

²⁶ And the children of Dan departed: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷ And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came to Laish, to a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.

²⁸ And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built a city and dwelt in it.

²⁹ And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel: but the name of the city was Laish at the first.

³⁰ And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

³¹ And they set up for themselves Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

¹ And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

² And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bore not.

³ And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold, now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.

⁴ Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:

⁵ For lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from his birth: and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.

⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither did he tell me his name:

⁷ But he said to me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from his birth to the day of his death.

⁸ Then Manoah entreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God, whom thou didst send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child that shall be born.

⁹ And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰ And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said to him, Behold, the man hath appeared to me, that came to me the other day.

¹¹ And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Art thou the man that didst speak to the woman? And he said, I am.

¹² And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do to him?

¹³ And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman, let her beware.

¹⁴ She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe.

¹⁵ And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.

¹⁶ And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, Though thou shouldst detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt-offering, thou must offer it to the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.

¹⁷ And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor?

¹⁸ And the angel of the LORD said to him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

¹⁹ So Manoah took a kid, with a meat-offering, and offered it upon a rock to the LORD; and the angel did wonderously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.

²⁰ For it came to pass, when the flame ascended towards heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹ But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.

²² And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

²³ But his wife said to him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such things as these.

²⁴ And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

²⁵ And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.