May 8th

He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke of it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; it was I who took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by Yahweh.”

And he then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly set apart the silver from my hand as holy to Yahweh for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; so now I will return them to you.”

So he returned the silver to his mother, and his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith. And he made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah.

And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols and ordained one of his sons, and he became his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

And there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was sojourning there.

Then the man went from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to sojourn wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.

And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn wherever I may find a place.”

Micah then said to him, “Remain with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in.

And the Levite was willing to remain with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

So Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah.

Then Micah said, “Now I know that Yahweh will prosper me because I have a Levite as priest.”

In those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day the land among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them as an inheritance.

So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

They were near the house of Micah, and they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite. So they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?”

And he said to them, “Thus and so has Micah done to me, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest.”

And they said to him, “Ask of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be successful.”

So the priest said to them, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going is before Yahweh.”

Then the five men went forth and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no oppressive conqueror dishonoring them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

So they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brothers said to them, “What do you report?”

And they said, “Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you be silent? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.

When you enter, you will come to a secure people and a spacious land; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, 600 men armed with weapons of war set out.

And they went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan to this day; behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim.

Then they passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

And the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their relatives, “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod and household idols and a graven image and a molten image? So now, know what you should do.”

Then they turned aside there and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare.

Now the 600 men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the sons of Dan, were standing by the entrance of the gate.

Then the five men who went to spy out the land went up and entered there, and took the graven image and the ephod and household idols and the molten image. And the priest was standing by the entrance of the gate with the 600 men armed with weapons of war.

Now these had entered into Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod and household idols and the molten image. Then the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

And they said to him, “Be silent; put your hand over your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?”

And the priest’s heart was merry, and he took the ephod and household idols and the graven image and entered among the people.

Then they turned and went away and put the little ones and the livestock and the valuables in front of them.

They had gone some distance from the house of Micah, and the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house were summoned and then overtook the sons of Dan.

And they called out to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you, that you were summoned together?”

And he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what do I have besides? So how can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ”

Then the sons of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest men, bitter of soul, fall upon you and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”

So the sons of Dan went on their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

Now they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burned the city with fire.

And there was no one to deliver them because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley which is near Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and lived in it.

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish.

Then the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the exile of the land.

So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.

Now it happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning in the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah.

But his concubine played the harlot against him, and she went away from him to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah and was there for a period of four months.

Then her husband arose and went after her to speak to her heart in order to bring her back, and his young man was with him as well as a pair of donkeys. So she brought him into her father’s house, and the girl’s father saw him and was glad to meet him.

And his father-in-law, the girl’s father, prevailed upon him; and he remained with him three days. So they ate and drank and spent the night there.

Now it happened on the fourth day that they got up early in the morning, and he arose to go; and the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Sustain yourself with a piece of bread, and afterward you may go.”

So both of them sat down and ate and drank together; and the girl’s father said to the man, “Please be willing to spend the night, and let your heart be merry.”

Then the man arose to go, but his father-in-law pressed him so that he turned back and spent the night there.

And on the fifth day he arose to go early in the morning, and the girl’s father said, “Please sustain yourself and wait until afternoon”; so both of them ate.

Then the man arose to go along with his concubine and young man, and his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Behold now, the day has drawn to a close; please spend the night. Behold, the day is coming to an end; spend the night here that your heart may be merry. Then tomorrow you may arise early for your journey so that you may go to your tent.”

But the man was not willing to spend the night, so he arose and went and came to a place before Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). And there were with him a pair of saddled donkeys; his concubine also was with him.

They were alongside of Jebus, and the day was almost gone. And the young man said to his master, “Come, please, and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it.”

However, his master said to him, “We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who are not of the sons of Israel; but we will pass on by until Gibeah.”

Then he said to his young man, “Come and let us draw near to one of these places; and we will spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

So they passed along and went their way, and the sun set on them near Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin.

Then they turned aside there in order to enter and to spend the night in Gibeah. So they entered and sat down in the open square of the city. Now no one was taking them into his house to spend the night.

Now on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing,

and when the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,

saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”

And they remembered His words,

and when they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Now Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the rest of the women with them were there; they were telling these things to the apostles.

But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they were not believing them.

But Peter stood up and ran to the tomb; and stooping to look in, he *saw the linen wrappings only. And he went away by himself, marveling at what had happened.

And behold, two of them were going that same day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.

And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had happened.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus Himself approached and was going with them.

But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.

And He said to them, “What are these words that you are discussing with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.

And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”

And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a mighty prophet in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,

and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.

But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

But also some women among us astounded us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning,

and not finding His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also said, but Him they did not see.”

And He said to them, “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.