Judges 17
17
Micah’s Shrine
1There was a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim. # 17:1 Micah means “Yahweh the Incomparable” or “Who is like Yahweh?” According to Jewish tradition, Micah’s mother was Delilah. Most scholars believe that chs. 17–18 form an appendix to the book and that the events of these two chapters actually happened much earlier, possibly during the days of the champion-deliverer Othniel. 2He said to his mother, “When someone stole your eleven hundred shekels of silver, # 17:2 Eleven hundred shekels would amount to over one hundred pounds of silver ($30,000). I overheard you speak a curse over the thief. Well, it turns out, I have the money. I’m the one who took it. Here—I’m bringing it back.”
Immediately, his mother, wanting to revoke her curse, said: “O my son! May Yahweh bless you!”
3So he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, but she said to him, “I give it back to you, for I solemnly dedicate this silver to Yahweh for my son to make a carved image, an idol covered with silver.” 4So from the silver he returned to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who molded them into an idol and overlaid the idol with silver. Micah kept the idol in his house.
5Now Micah had a shrine, # 17:5 Or “house of God.” Micah attempted to begin his own religious system of worship, complete with a priestly ephod (priestly vest). Compare 1 Kings 12:25–33. and he made some idols and a counterfeit ephod and ordained # 17:5 Or “filled the hand of.” one of his sons as his priest. 6In those days, Israel had no king. People did whatever they wanted to do.
Micah’s Counterfeit Priest
7At the same time, there was a young man # 17:7 His name was Jonathan, son of Gershom. See 18:30. from the priestly tribe of Levi living in Bethlehem in Judah. 8He left there to search for another place to live. On his journey, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim. 9Micah asked him, “Where are you from?”
“I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I’m looking for a place to live.”
10“Live here with me,” Micah said to him. “Be my father and priest, and I’ll pay you ten shekels of silver a year and provide your clothes and your food.” 11So the Levite agreed to move in with him and the young man became like one of his sons. 12Then Micah ordained the young Levite as his priest, and he lived in his house. 13And Micah declared, “Now I know that Yahweh will bless me and prosper me, since a Levite now serves as my priest.” # 17:13 He was Micah’s priest, not God’s.
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Judges 17: TPT
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