Judges 17

Micah’s Idolatry

17Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was ^aMicah. ²And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you ^bput a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.”

And his mother said, ^c“May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” ³So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to ^dmake a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you.” ⁴Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother ^etook two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.

⁵The man Micah had a ^fshrine, and made an ^gephod and ^hhousehold ¹idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. ⁶ⁱIn those days there was no king in Israel; ^jeveryone did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷Now there was a young man from ^kBethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and ^lwas staying there. ⁸The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. ⁹And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?”

So he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.”

¹⁰Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, ^mand be a ⁿfather and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. ¹²So Micah ^oconsecrated ²the Levite, and the young man ^pbecame his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. ¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since I have a Levite as ^qpriest!”