1. In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking territory for itself to live in, because until that day it had not been allotted territory among the tribes of Israel.
2. The descendants of Dan sent from the whole number of their clan five capable men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” And they went to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they spent the night there.
3. While they were with the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite, and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place, and what is your business here?”
4. And he said to them, “Micah did such and such for me and hired me, and I became his priest.”
5. And they said to him, “Please inquire of God that we may know whether our journey that we are going on will be successful.”
6. And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. Yahweh is in front of you on the journey you want to go on.”
7. And the five men went and came to Laish, and they observed the people who were living according to the customs of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, and lacking nothing in the land, and possessing restraint. And they were far from the Sidonians and had no word with anyone.
8. They came to their relatives at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their relatives said to them, “What do you report?”
9. And they said to them, “Come, let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Will you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to possess the land.
10. When you go you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is spread out on all sides; God has given a place into your hands where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”
11. Six hundred men from the clan of the Danites from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war, set out from there.
12. They went up and encamped at Kiriath Jearim in Judah. Therefore they called this place Camp of Dan to this day; it is west of Kiriath Jearim.
13. From there they crossed over to the hill country of Ephraim, and they came to the house of Micah.
14. And the five men that went out to spy out the land (that is, Laish) responded and said to their relatives, “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, teraphim, and an idol of cast metal? So then, consider what you must do.”
15. So they turned to that direction, and they came to the house of the young Levite, the house of Micah, and they greeted him.
16. And six hundred men from the descendants of Dan, armed with their weapons of war, were standing at the entrance of the gate.