Judges 17
New American Standard Bible
Micah’s Idolatry
17 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2 And 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 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 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly consecrate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son (A)to make a carved image and a cast metal image; so now I will return [a]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 [b]them into a carved image and a cast metal image, and [c]they were in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a [d](B)shrine and he made an (C)ephod and [e](D)household idols, and [f]consecrated one of his sons, (E)so that he might become his priest. 6 In those days (F)there was no king in Israel; (G)everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
7 Now there was a young man from (H)Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was [g]staying there. 8 Then the man left the city, Bethlehem in Judah, to [h]stay wherever he would find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the (I)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 [i]stay wherever I may find a place.” 10 Micah then said to him, “Stay with me and be (J)a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a supply of clothing, and your sustenance.” 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 [j]consecrated the Levite, and the young man (K)became his priest and [k]lived in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as a priest.”
Footnotes
- Judges 17:3 Lit it
- Judges 17:4 Lit it
- Judges 17:4 Lit it was
- Judges 17:5 Lit house of gods
- Judges 17:5 Heb teraphim
- Judges 17:5 Lit filled the hand of
- Judges 17:7 Or sojourning
- Judges 17:8 Or sojourn
- Judges 17:9 Or sojourn
- Judges 17:12 Lit filled the hand of
- Judges 17:12 Lit was
Judges 17
Living Bible
17 In the hill country of Ephraim lived a man named Micah.
2 One day he said to his mother, “That thousand dollars you thought was stolen from you, and you were cursing about—well, I stole it!”
“God bless you for confessing it,” his mother replied. 3 So he returned the money to her.
“I am going to give it to the Lord as a credit for your account,” she declared. “I’ll have an idol carved for you and plate it with the silver.”
4-5 So his mother took a fifth of it to a silversmith, and the idol he made from it was placed in Micah’s shrine. Micah had many idols in his collection, also an ephod and some teraphim, and he installed one of his sons as the priest. 6 (For in those days Israel had no king, so everyone did whatever he wanted to—whatever seemed right in his own eyes.)
7-8 One day a young priest[a] from the town of Bethlehem, in Judah, arrived in that area of Ephraim, looking for a good place to live. He happened to stop at Micah’s house as he was traveling through.
9 “Where are you from?” Micah asked him.
And he replied, “I am a priest from Bethlehem, in Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.”
10-11 “Well, stay here with me,” Micah said, “and you can be my priest. I will give you one hundred dollars a year plus a new suit and your board and room.” The young man agreed to this and became as one of Micah’s sons. 12 So Micah consecrated him as his personal priest.
13 “I know the Lord will really bless me now,” Micah exclaimed, “because now I have a genuine priest working for me!”[b]
Footnotes
- Judges 17:7 a young priest, literally, “a Levite.”
- Judges 17:13 a genuine priest, literally, “a Levite as a priest.”
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.