Judges 18:27
And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.
The Danites took the religious objects Micah had made and the priest he had, came to Laish against a people living quiet and secure, struck them with the edge of the sword, and burned the city with fire. This account belongs within the portrayal of Israel's deeply troubled condition. Afterward they rebuilt the city, named it Dan, and settled there, setting up the images with the Levite as priest and establishing idolatrous worship that continued until the ten tribes went into captivity.
The verse belongs to chapters 17 through 21, which record events from the early part of the history of the judges out of chronological order, while the continuous story of the book ends with chapter 16. It belongs to the closing record of Israel's backsliding and deeply troubled condition, and of the disgrace and punishment that followed. It is part of the account of Israel's moral disorder when people did what was right in their own eyes. The extreme wickedness in chapters 18 and 19 shows that human judgment without divine revelation is corrupted and can make wrong appear right. It belongs to one of the two stories of awful idolatry told in the latter part of Judges, showing the sad record of transgressions and constant lapsing into idolatry despite the effort to restore them.
The chapter shows the first apostasy of the tribe of Dan. This is suggested as a reason Dan may have been left out of the tribes numbered in the sealing of the 144,000.