Micah’s Idolatry

¹Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse ^[a]in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” ³ He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return ^[b]them to you.” ⁴ So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made ^[c]them into a graven image and a molten image, and ^[d]they were in the house of Micah. ⁵ And the man Micah had a ^[e]shrine and he made an ephod and ^[f]household idols and ^[g]consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his 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, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was ^[h]staying there. ⁸ Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to ^[i]stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, 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 ^[j]stay wherever I may find a place.” ¹⁰ Micah then said to him, “Dwell with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹ The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. ¹² So Micah ^[k]consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and ^[l]lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”