אין לך דבר שבעולם שעומד בפני התשובה כלל

(1) There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

(2) He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, so that you uttered an imprecation which you repeated in my hearing—I have that silver; I took it.” “Blessed of the LORD be my son,” said his mother.

(3) He returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother; but his mother said, “I herewith consecrate the silver to the LORD, transferring it to my son to make a sculptured image and a molten image. I now return it to you.”

(4) So when he gave the silver back to his mother, his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave it to a smith. He made of it a sculptured image and a molten image, which were kept in the house of Micah.

(5) Now the man Micah had a house of God; he had made an ephod and teraphim and he had inducted one of his sons to be his priest.

(6) In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did as he pleased.

(7) There was a young man from Bethlehem of Judah, from the clan seat of Judah; he was a Levite and had resided there as a sojourner.

(8) This man had left the town of Bethlehem of Judah to take up residence wherever he could find a place. On his way, he came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim.

(9) “Where do you come from?” Micah asked him. He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem of Judah, and I am traveling to take up residence wherever I can find a place.”

(10) “Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be a father and a priest to me, and I will pay you ten shekels of silver a year, an allowance of clothing, and your food.” The Levite went.

(11) The Levite agreed to stay with the man, and the youth became like one of his own sons.

(12) Micah inducted the Levite, and the young man became his priest and remained in Micah’s shrine.

(13) “Now I know,” Micah told himself, “that the LORD will prosper me, since the Levite has become my priest.”

(1) In those days there was no king in Israel, and in those days the tribe of Dan was seeking a territory in which to settle; for to that day no territory had fallen to their lot among the tribes of Israel.

(2) The Danites sent out five of their number, from their clan seat at Zorah and Eshtaol—valiant men—to spy out the land and explore it. “Go,” they told them, “and explore the land.” When they had advanced into the hill country of Ephraim as far as the house of Micah, they stopped there for the night.

(3) While in the vicinity of Micah’s house, they recognized the speech of the young Levite, so they went over and asked him, “Who brought you to these parts? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”

(4) He replied, “Thus and thus Micah did for me—he hired me and I became his priest.”

(5) They said to him, “Please, inquire of God; we would like to know if the mission on which we are going will be successful.”

(6) “Go in peace,” the priest said to them, “the LORD views with favor the mission you are going on.”

(7) The five men went on and came to Laish. They observed the people in it dwelling carefree, after the manner of the Sidonians, a tranquil and unsuspecting people, with no one in the land to molest them and with no hereditary ruler. Moreover, they were distant from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anybody.

(8) When [the men] came back to their kinsmen at Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen asked them, “How did you fare?”

(9) They replied, “Let us go at once and attack them! For we found that the land was very good, and you are sitting idle! Don’t delay; go and invade the land and take possession of it,

(10) for God has delivered it into your hand. When you come, you will come to an unsuspecting people; and the land is spacious and nothing on earth is lacking there.”

(11) They departed from there, from the clan seat of the Danites, from Zorah and Eshtaol, six hundred strong, girt with weapons of war.

(12) They went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. That is why that place is called “the Camp of Dan” to this day; it lies west of Kiriath-jearim.

(13) From there they passed on to the hill country of Ephraim and arrived at the house of Micah.

(14) Here the five men who had gone to spy out the Laish region remarked to their kinsmen, “Do you know, there is an ephod in these houses, and teraphim, and a sculptured image and a molten image? Now you know what you have to do.”

(15) So they turned off there and entered the home of the young Levite at Micah’s house and greeted him.

(16) The six hundred Danite men, girt with their weapons of war, stood at the entrance of the gate,

(17) while the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the sculptured image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image. The priest was standing at the entrance of the gate, and the six hundred men girt with their weapons of war,

(18) while those men entered Micah’s house and took the sculptured image, the molten image, the ephod, and the household gods. The priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

(19) But they said to him, “Be quiet; put your hand on your mouth! Come with us and be our father and priest. Would you rather be priest to one man’s household or be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?”

(20) The priest was delighted. He took the ephod, the household gods, and the sculptured image, and he joined the people.

(21) They set out again, placing the children, the cattle, and their household goods in front.

(22) They had already gone some distance from Micah’s house, when the men in the houses near Micah’s mustered and caught up with the Danites.

(23) They called out to the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, “What’s the matter? Why have you mustered?”

(24) He said, “You have taken my priest and the gods that I made, and walked off! What do I have left? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter’?”

(25) But the Danites replied, “Don’t do any shouting at us, or some desperate men might attack you, and you and your family would lose your lives.”

(26) So Micah, realizing that they were stronger than he, turned back and went home; and the Danites went on their way,

(27) taking the things Micah had made and the priest he had acquired. They proceeded to Laish, a people tranquil and unsuspecting, and they put them to the sword and burned down the town.

(28) There was none to come to the rescue, for it was distant from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone; it lay in the valley of Beth-rehob. They rebuilt the town and settled there,

(29) and they named the town Dan, after their ancestor Dan who was Israel’s son. Originally, however, the name of the town was Laish.

(30) The Danites set up the sculptured image for themselves; and Jonathan son of Gershom son of Manasseh, and his descendants, served as priests to the Danite tribe until the land went into exile.

(31) They maintained the sculptured image that Micah had made throughout the time that the House of God stood at Shiloh.

Ben Menasheh. In deference to Moshe, the letter "nun" was included, thus altering the name. It is scripturally suspended to indicate that he was actually not Menasheh, but Moshe.¹⁰Bava Basra 109b.

One day Rav Ashi ended his lecture just before reaching the matter of the three kings. He said to his students: Tomorrow we will begin the lecture with our colleagues the three kings, who, although they were sinners, were Torah scholars like us. Manasseh, king of Judea, came and appeared to him in his dream. Manasseh said to him angrily: You called us your colleague and the colleagues of your father? How dare you characterize yourself as our equal? Manasseh said to him: I will ask you, from where are you required to begin cutting a loaf of bread when reciting the blessing: Who brings forth bread from the earth? Rav Ashi said to him: I do not know. Manasseh said to him: Even this, from where you are required to begin cutting a loaf of bread when reciting the blessing: Who brings forth bread from the earth, you did not learn, and yet you call us your colleague? Rav Ashi said to Manasseh: Teach me this halakha and tomorrow I will lecture and cite it in your name during my public lecture delivered on the Festival. Manasseh said to him: One cuts the loaf from where it crusts as a result of baking. Rav Ashi said to him: Since you were so wise, what is the reason you engaged in idol worship? Manasseh said to him: Had you been there at that time, you would have taken and lifted the hem of your cloak and run after me due to the fierce desire to engage in idol worship and due to the fact that it was a common faith. The next day Rav Ashi said to the Sages as a prelude to his lecture: We will begin with the treatment of our teachers, those kings who were greater than us in Torah knowledge but whose sins caused them to lose their share in the World-to-Come.