Judges 17

There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micaiah. He said to his mother, “The silver taken from you, about twenty-eight pounds, over which you pronounced a curse that I also heard—the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!” He returned the silver, about twenty-eight pounds, to his mother. His mother said, “I have solemnly dedicated the silver to the LORD from my own hand for my son, to make a carved image and a cast image. Now I will return it to you.” He returned the silver to his mother, and his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith. He made it into a carved image and a cast image, which stood in Micaiah’s house. The man Micah had a shrine. He made an ephod and household gods, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Each man did what was right in his own eyes. There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah, who was a Levite staying there. The man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to live wherever he could find a place. As he traveled, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim. Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am traveling to find a place to live.” Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be a father and a priest to me. I will give you about four ounces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your food.” So the Levite went with him. The Levite agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house. Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will deal well with me, because I have a Levite as my priest.”

Rights and attribution