Judges 17

Chapter 17

Micah’s Idolatry

¹Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

²He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse ¹in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.”

³He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son ^ato make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return ¹them to you.”

⁴So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made ¹them into a graven image and a molten image, and ²they were in the house of Micah.

⁵And the man Micah had a ^1ashrine and he made an ^bephod and ^2chousehold idols and ³consecrated one of his sons, ^dthat he might become his priest.

⁶In those days ^athere was no king in Israel; ^bevery man did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷Now there was a young man from ^aBethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was ¹staying there.

⁸Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to ¹stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the ^ahill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.

⁹Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to ¹stay wherever I may find a place.”

¹⁰Micah then said to him, “Dwell with me and be ^aa father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.” So the Levite went in.

¹¹The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

¹²So Micah ¹consecrated the Levite, and the young man ^abecame his priest and ²lived in the house of Micah.

¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”