Judges 18:2
And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.
Judges 18 stands within chapters 17-21, which record events from the early part of the period of the judges rather than continuing after chapters 11-16 in time, with the main narrative ending at chapter 16. Together with Joshua 23-24 and Judges 1-10, these chapters belong to the closing history of Joshua and the early judges. The verse describes the children of Dan sending five men of valour from their coasts, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it for an inheritance for the tribe. Traveling northward, the five capable scouts came to Mount Ephraim and lodged at the house of Micah.
At Micah's house the scouts recognized the voice of the young Levite who was serving as Micah's priest. They asked him for his blessing upon their venture to find land. Their discovery of Micah's idols and priest led the Danites afterward to take both and to establish idolatrous worship at Dan. That seizure marked the first apostasy of the tribe of Dan.
The events of the chapter show the lawlessness and moral corruption of Israel when there was no king and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Human judgment without God's revealed standard is distorted by selfishness, so that wrong can appear right and right can appear wrong. This first apostasy of Dan is suggested as the reason Dan is omitted from the tribes listed in the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7:1-8. The account of Israel's backsliding gives no license to think one can do the same with impunity.