Judges 17

17 ¹ There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke it in my hearing—look, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "May my son be blessed by our Father."

³ So he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and she said, "I solemnly dedicate this silver to our Father from my own hand, on behalf of my son, to make a carved image and a cast idol. Now I will give it back to you."

⁴ When he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred pieces of it and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a cast idol; and it stood in Micah's house.

⁵ Now this man Micah had a shrine of his own, and he made an ephod and household idols, and he ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. ⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. ⁷ There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was staying there. ⁸ This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to find another place to live, and on his way he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to Micah's house. ⁹ Micah asked him, "Where do you come from?" He answered, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am looking for a place to live."

¹⁰ Micah said to him, "Stay with me and be my father and priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your food." So the Levite went in. ¹¹ The Levite agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his own sons. ¹² Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah's house. ¹³ Then Micah said, "Now I know that our Father will be good to me, because I have a Levite as my priest." ¹ 1 v13 Micah is sure our Father will bless him because he has hired a Levite to tend his idols—the tragedy of claiming the Father's name for worship of our own making.