[1] Once there was a man named Micah who lived in the Ephraim highlands. [2] He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you led you to declare a curse and even to repeat it when I could hear. I have that silver. I’m the one who took it, and now I’ll give it back to you.” His mother replied, “May the LORD bless you, my son!” [3] When he gave the eleven hundred pieces of silver back to his mother, she said, “I wholeheartedly devote this silver to the LORD, to be made into a sculpted image and a molded image for my son.” [4] So he gave the silver back to his mother, and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used it for a sculpted image and a molded image. And they were placed in Micah’s house. [5] This man Micah had his own sanctuary. He made a priestly vest and divine images and appointed one of his sons to be his personal priest. [6] In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right. [7] Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the area of the Judahite clan. He was a Levite residing there as an immigrant. [8] The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle as an immigrant wherever he could find a place. He came to Micah’s house in the Ephraim highlands while he was making his way. [9] “Where are you from?” Micah asked him. He replied, “I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m looking to settle as an immigrant anywhere I can find a place.” [10] So Micah said to him, “Stay with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I’ll give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your basic needs.” [11] The Levite agreed to stay with him; and the young man became like one of his own sons. [12] Micah appointed the Levite so that the young man became his personal priest and lived in Micah’s sanctuary. [13] And Micah said to himself, Now I know that the LORD will give me good things, because a Levite has become my priest.
