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1There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah.
2He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver taken from you, and that I heard you utter a curse about — here, I have the silver with me. I took it. So now I return it to you.”[#MT places this sentence at the end of v. 3.]
Then his mother said, “My son, you are blessed by the Lord ! ”
3He 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 overlaid with silver.”[#Lv 22:2-3; 27:14-19; 1Ch 18:11; 26:26-28; 2Ch 30:17; #Or image and a cast image]
4So 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 overlaid with silver, and it was in Micah’s house.[#Or image and a cast image]
5This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.[#Gn 31:19,34-35; Jdg 18:14; 1Sm 19:13; 2Kg 23:24; Hs 3:4]
6In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted.[#Jdg 18:1; 19:1; 21:25; #Lit did what was right in his eyes]
7There was a young man, a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who resided within the clan of Judah.[#Dt 18:6-7]
8The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle 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 settle wherever I can find a place.”
10Micah 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 in[#Lit replied to him; #Gn 45:8; Jdg 18:19; Jr 3:19]
11and agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons.
12Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house.[#Jdg 18:30]
13Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”