Judges 17:1-13

There was a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim. He said to his mother, “When someone stole your eleven hundred shekels of silver, 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!” So 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.” So 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. Now Micah had a shrine, and he made some idols and a counterfeit ephod and ordained one of his sons as his priest. In those days, Israel had no king. People did whatever they wanted to do. At the same time, there was a young man from the priestly tribe of Levi living in Bethlehem in Judah. He left there to search for another place to live. On his journey, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim. Micah 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.” “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.” So the Levite agreed to move in with him and the young man became like one of his sons. Then Micah ordained the young Levite as his priest, and he lived in his house. And Micah declared, “Now I know that YAHWEH will bless me and prosper me, since a Levite now serves as my priest.”