Judges 17

Micah’s Priest

¹There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah.²³He 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!”⁴

⁵He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate the silver to the Lord for my son’s benefit to make a carved image and a silver idol. I will give it back to you.”⁶⁷So 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.⁸

⁹This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.¹⁰¹¹In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.¹²

¹³There was a young man, a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who was staying within the clan of Judah.¹⁴¹⁵The 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.¹⁶

¹⁷“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.”¹⁸

¹⁹Micah replied, “Stay with me and be my father and priest, and I will give you four ounces of silver a year, along with your clothing and provisions.” So the Levite went in²⁰²¹and agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons.²²²³Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house.²⁴²⁵Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”²⁶