Micah’s Idolatry

17 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you cursed [the thief] and also spoke about in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son before the Lord.” ³ He returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and she said, “I had truly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son (in his name) to make an image [carved from wood and plated with silver] and a cast image [of solid silver]; so now, I will return it to you.” ⁴ So when he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made of it an image [of silver-plated wood] and a cast image [of solid silver]; and they were in the house of Micah. ⁵ Now the man Micah had a house of gods (shrine), and he made an ephod and teraphim and dedicated and installed one of his sons, who became his [personal] priest. ⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷ Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the family [of the tribe] of Judah, who was a ^[a]Levite; and he was staying there [temporarily]. ⁸ Then the man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he could find a place; and as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah. ⁹ 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 stay wherever I can find a place.” ¹⁰ And Micah said to him, “Live here with me and be a father and a [personal] priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver each year, a supply of clothing, and your sustenance (room and board).” So the Levite went in. ¹¹ The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to Micah like one of his sons. ¹² So Micah dedicated (installed) the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will favor me and make me prosper because I have a Levite as my priest.”