(15-18) In these verses we have a graphic description of the whole nefarious proceeding. The five spies, knowing Jonathan, salute him, and inveigle him to the entrance of the court to talk to their six hundred companions. While the chiefs of this little army detain him in conversation, without any show of violence the five slip away unobserved to the alîyah, or upper room, which serves as the chapel, and steal all the essentials of the worship — namely, (1) the ephod; (2) the teraphim; (3) the graven image; (4) the molten image. It is true that in Judges 18:20-30 the massecah is not mentioned; but it may be regarded as belonging to the pesel. It is only when he sees them in actual possession of these that Jonathan asks the alarmed question, “What do ye?”
Judges 18:15-18
15 And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and salutedc him.
16 And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate.
17 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
18 And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?