Later on, the Amorites forced the descendants of Dan into the hill country and did not permit them to come into the valleys of the hills.

The tribe of Gilead remained on the other side of the Jordan River. As for the tribe of Dan, why did they stay on board their ships? The tribe of Asher sat by the seashore and remained near its harbors.

There was one man from Zorah, from the family of the descendants of Dan, whose name was Manoah. Since his wife was infertile, she hadn't borne children.

Then the Spirit of the LORD began to rouse him where the tribe of Dan was encamped, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Back in those days, Israel didn't have a king yet, and during that time the tribe of Dan had been seeking a territorial inheritance to live in, because up until that time no territory had been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.

So the tribe of Dan sent from their families five valiant men of their number from Zorah and Eshtaol to scout the land and search through it. Following their orders, which were "Go and scout the land," they came to the mountainous region of Ephraim, arrived at Micah's home, and stayed there.

So 600 descendants of Dan from Zorah and Eshtaol set out for battle, armed with military weapons.

They went out and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in the territory of Judah. (That's why they call the place Mahaneh-dan to this day. It lies west of Kiriath-jearim.)

When they had been gone a short distance from Micah's home, some of Micah's neighbors assembled a search party and overtook the descendants of Dan.

They yelled at the descendants of Dan, who turned around to face Micah and asked, "What's wrong with you? You've assembled together"?"

The descendants of Dan answered him, "You had better not talk to us about this, or else these bad guys here will attack you. You will lose your life, along with the lives of your whole household."

Then the descendants of Dan went on their way. Because Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back home.

But the descendants of Dan took what Micah had made, along with the priest who had worked for him, and went to Laish, to a quiet and carefree people, and killed them with swords. Then they set fire to the city.

They renamed the city Dan, after the name of their ancestor Dan, who had been born in Israel. The former name of the city was Laish.

The descendants of Dan set up the carved image, and Gershom's son Jonathan, a descendant of Manasseh, served along with his descendants as priests to the tribe of Dan until the land was taken captive.

Then the entire Israeli nation from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the territory of Gilead came out for war. The army assembled as one united force to God at Mizpah.