Judges 17

17 ¹ There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² He told his mother, "The eleven hundred pieces of silver taken from you, which you cursed—I heard you say it—look, I have the silver; I took it." His mother said, "May our Father bless my son."

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

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

⁵ This man Micah had a shrine, made an ephod and household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest. ⁶ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. ⁷ A young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of Judah's clan, was a Levite staying there. ⁸ This man left Bethlehem in Judah to find another place to live, and traveling on, he reached the hill country of Ephraim, to Micah's house. ⁹ Micah asked, "Where are you from?" He said, "A Levite from Bethlehem in Judah; I'm looking for somewhere to live."

¹⁰ Micah said, "Stay with me; be my father and priest, and I'll 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 sons. ¹² Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah's house. ¹³ Micah said, "Now I know our Father will be good to me, because I have a Levite as my priest." ^a a 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.