Micah and the Levite

¹There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.[#8; 18:2; Josh. 24:33]

²And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord .”[#Ruth 3:10; 1 Sam. 15:13]

³And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”[#Ex. 20:4; #Lev. 19:4]

⁴So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah.[#Isa. 46:6]

⁵And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest.[#8:27; 18:14, 17; Ex. 28:6-35; #Gen. 31:19; Hos. 3:4; #12; 1 Kgs. 13:33; #17:5 Hebrew ; also verse 12]

⁶In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.[#18:1; 19:1; 21:25; #Deut. 12:8]

⁷Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.[#19:1; Ruth 1:1, 2; Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:1, 5, 6]

⁸And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.[#Josh. 24:33]

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

¹⁰And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in.[#18:19]

¹¹And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.[#Ex. 2:21]

¹²And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.[#5; #18:30]

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