The tribe of Dan at length became weary of these unprofitable struggles, and determined to seek out another and more easily defensible settlement. They sent out five emissaries, therefore, to look out for a new home. While these were passing through the mountains they called upon a certain Michah in the hill-country of Ephraim and lodged there. Here they took counsel of a Levite whom Michah had made his priest, and, in answer to the question whether their journey would be prosperous, he told them to “Go in peace: before the Lord is the way wherein ye go.” Their search turned out successful, for they discovered near the sources of the Jordan the town of Laish, whose people, like the Zidonians, dwelt in security, fearing no trouble. On the report of the emissaries, Dan decided to emigrate: the warriors set out to the number of six hundred, carried off by the way the ephod of Micah and the Levite who served before it, and succeeded in capturing Laish, to which they gave the name of their tribe. “They there set up for themselves the ephod: 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 captivity of the land.” * The tribe of Dan displayed in this advanced post of peril the bravery it had shown on the frontiers of the Shephelah, and showed itself the most bellicose of the tribes of Israel. * The history of this migration, which is given summarily in Josh. xix. 47, is, as it now stands, a blending of two accounts. The presence of a descendant of Moses as a priest in this local sanctuary probably offended the religious scruples of a copyist, who substituted Manasseh for Moses (Judges xviii. 30), but the correction was not generally accepted. [The R.V. reads “Moses” where the authorised text has “Manasseh.”--Tr.] It bore out well its character--“Dan is a lion’s whelp that leapeth forth from Bashan” on the Hermon;* “a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider falleth backward.” ** The new position they had taken up enabled them to protect Galilee for centuries against the incursions of the Aramaeans. * See the Blessing of Moses (Dent, xxxiii. 22). ** These are the words used in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 17). [Illustration: 304.jpg THE HILL OF SHILOH, SEEN FROM THE NORTH-EAST] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 100 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund._