Micah’s Idolatry

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

²He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke of it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; it was I who took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by Yahweh.”[#17:2 Lit in my ears]

³And he then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly set apart the silver from my hand as holy to Yahweh for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; so now I will return them to you.”[#17:3 Lit it]

⁴So he returned the silver to his mother, and his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith. And he made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah.[#17:4 Lit it; #17:4 Lit it was]

⁵And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols and ordained one of his sons, and he became his priest.[#17:5 Lit house of gods; #17:5 Heb teraphim; #17:5 Lit filled the hand of]

⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷And there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was sojourning there.

⁸Then the man went from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to sojourn wherever he might find a place ; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.

⁹And Micah 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 sojourn wherever I may find a place .”

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

¹¹And the Levite was willing to remain with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

¹²So Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah.[#17:12 Lit filled the hand of; #17:12 Lit was]

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