Micah’s Priest

17 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah. ² He 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)

³ He 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.^[a] I will give it back to you.” ⁴ So 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.

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

⁷ There was a young man, a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who was staying within the clan of Judah.^{(E) 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.”

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