Micah’s Idols
1There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah. 2He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you — the silver you put a curse on, and that I heard you speak about — I have it. I took it.” His mother said, “Blessed by Yahweh is my son.” 3When he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly dedicate this silver to Yahweh, from my own hand, for my son, to make a carved image and a cast idol. Now I will give it back to you.” 4But he returned the silver to his mother, so she 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 placed in Micah’s house. 5Now Micah had a shrine of gods. He made an ephod and household gods, and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
The Levite Becomes Micah’s Priest
7There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah, who was a Levite, and he had been living there as a foreigner. 8He left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle wherever he could find a place, and on his way he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah. 9Micah asked him, “Where do you come from?” “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I am on my way to settle wherever I can find a place.” 10Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Be a father and a priest to me, and 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 him, and the young man became like one of his own sons to him. 12Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah’s house. 13Micah said, “Now I know Yahweh will be good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest.”
