Judges 18:20 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the priest 's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the household gods and the carved image and went along with the people.

NIV: The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people.

NASB: The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image, and went among the people.

CSB: So the priest was pleased and took his ephod, household idols, and carved image, and went with the people.

NLT: The young priest was quite happy to go with them, so he took along the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the carved image.

KJV: 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.

NKJV: 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.

The five Danite spies (Judges 18:1) who had visited Micah's house (Judges 18:2) have returned with an army of six hundred warriors and their families (Judges 18:11–13). They are migrating north (Judges 18:7), but first they have stopped to steal Micah's religious objects and his personal Levite priest. That priest was content to have overseen a shrine with objects dedicated both to Yahweh and numerous false gods.

Now the priest has received an even better job offer. The Levite was content to live in Micah's household, serving as a paid private cleric. Now the Danites have demanded he come with them, upping his status to being "priest" of an entire tribe of Israel. Proving that he's nothing but a spiritual mercenary, he is thrilled at this proposition. The idea of going along with a raiding tribe and stealing his former employer's idols makes him happy. Instead of trying to stop the scouts from robbing a man who had treated him like a son, he helped take the sacred objects from Micah's house. He then joined the people of Dan as they continued their journey north.

The modern world has plenty of people with the same spirit as this fraudulent Levite "priest." He is a perfect example of a religious leader happy to accept status and security (Judges 17:7–12) without representing God in any meaningful way (Exodus 20:3–17). If he knew the commands of the Lord, he did not correct the wrong beliefs and misunderstandings of those he served. Like many modern religious leaders, he was unwilling to risk worldly security to confront those who employed him. Then and now, there are false teachers willing to pretend to represent God so they can enjoy the respect of a titled position (Matthew 23).

Judges 18:14–31 describes how the migrating people of the tribe of Dan steal from Micah (Judges 18:1–5). They take his collection of expensive idols and religious totems. His hired Levite priest accepts the Danites' invitation to come along with the raiders. Micah and his neighbors desperately chase, but the Danite forces are too large to risk attacking. The Danites arrive at Laish, in the north, and slaughter its peaceful, unprepared Sidonian occupants. They take possession of the town, rename it Dan, and establish a nexus of false worship.

The people of the tribe of Dan want to relocate because they failed to take their allotted territory in the Promised Land. They send five scouts to find land. The men stop at Micah's home (Judges 17:1–5, 13) and meet his priest before continuing north. They find Laish and realize it's a soft, vulnerable, peaceful town. A six hundred-man army and their families stop at Micah's home to steal his house gods and hired priest. When they arrive at Laish, the Danites slaughter the Sidonians living there, burn the city, rebuild it, and move in. Dan becomes a center of false worship.

In the prior chapter, Micah hires a personal cleric for his family religion. Judges 18 describes how he loses all his religious objects and that priest to raiders from the tribe of Dan. That convoy continues north to their target, the town of Laish. This town was selected, in part, for being helpless against attackers. The raiders rename the city "Dan." The people and the priest establish a center for false worship which lasts for centuries. Joshua 19:40–48 describes how Dan moved from their allotted land into this unapproved territory (Joshua 17).

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).