Judges 17

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

²And he said to his mother , The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse , and also spoke it in my ears , behold , the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said , Blessed be my son by the Lord.

³And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother . And his mother said , I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son , to make a carved image and a metal image . Now therefore I will restore it to you.

⁴So when he restored the money to his mother , his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith , who made it into a carved image and a metal image . And it was in the house of Micah .

⁵And the man Micah had a shrine , and he made an ephod and household gods , and ordained one of his sons , who became his priest .

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

⁷Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah , of the family of Judah , who was a Levite , and he sojourned there.

⁸And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed , 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 of Bethlehem in Judah , and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.

¹⁰And Micah said to him, Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest , and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living . And the Levite went in .

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

¹²And Micah ordained the Levite , and the young man became his priest , and was in the house of Micah .

¹³Then Micah said , Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest .