Judges 17

1There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

2He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you pronounced a curse, and even said it in my hearing—look, the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May my son be blessed by Yahweh!”

3He gave the eleven hundred pieces of silver back to his mother, and his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate the silver from my own hand to Yahweh for my son, to make a carved image and a cast idol. So now I will give it back to you.”

4When he gave the silver back to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a cast idol. They were kept in Micah’s house.

5This man Micah had a shrine. He made an ephod and household idols and installed one of his sons, who became his priest.

6In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

7There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah. He was a Levite, and he had been living there as a foreigner.

8The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live wherever he could find a place. As he traveled, he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah.

9Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He answered him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place.”

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

11The Levite agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.

12Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house.

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