Judges 17

Micah’s Priest

¹There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah. ²He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver taken from you, and that I heard you place a curse on #— #here’s the silver. I took it.”

Then his mother said, “My son, may you be blessed by the Lord! ” ^a

³He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate ^b the silver to the Lord for my son’s benefit to make a carved image and a silver idol. ^c I will give it back to you.” ⁴So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took five pounds of silver and gave it to a silversmith. He made it into a carved image and a silver idol, and it was in Micah’s house.

⁵This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, ^d and installed one of his sons to be his priest. ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; ^e everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

⁷There was a young man, a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who was staying within the clan of Judah. ^{f 8}The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. On his way he came to Micah’s home in the hill country of Ephraim.

⁹“Where do you come from? ” Micah asked him.

He answered him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m going to stay wherever I can find a place.”

¹⁰Micah replied, ^g “Stay with me and be my father ^h and priest, and I will give you four ounces of silver a year, along with your clothing and provisions.” So the Levite went in ¹¹and agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. ¹²Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest ⁱ and lived in Micah’s house. ¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”