Judges 17

¹ In the highlands of Ephraim there was a man called Micayehu.

⁴ Then his mother took two hundred silver shekels and gave them to the metal-worker. From them he made a carved image (and an idol of cast metal), and this was placed in the house of Micah,

⁵ who built a shrine for it, and then made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons to act as priest for him.

⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did as he pleased.

⁷ There was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah, who was a Levite and resided there as a stranger.

⁸ This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to look for a place where he could find a home. In his travels he came to the highlands of Ephraim and to Micah’s house.

⁹ Micah asked him, ‘Where do you come from?’ The other answered him, ‘I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am travelling and looking for a place where I can find a home.’

¹⁰ Micah said to him, ‘Stay here with me; be a father and a priest for me, and I will give you ten silver shekels a year, and food and clothing’; and he urged the Levite.

¹¹ The Levite agreed to remain in the man’s house, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.

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

¹³ And Micah said, ‘Now I know that Yahweh will prosper me, because I have this Levite as my priest’.