In reply to the priest’s objection at the end of Judges 18:18, the spies, spokesmen for their fellow Danites, say, Come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?
This is a bribe. They offer him the opportunity to be a father and a priest to an entire tribe rather than a single household (whose shrine is no more anyway). This is an offer of far better terms of employment than he could ever have by staying in Micah’s care. The position of spiritual father and priest was one that Micah had offered him earlier in Judges 17:10. Now the spies shrewdly use the same terms, but they offer the priest far more. It is an offer that a man of this Levite’s character—his ambition, opportunism, and greed—cannot refuse. Now he gets to be the pope
(papa, father) of an entire tribe!1
19 And they said to him, “Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?”