 1 There was a man of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Micah. 2 He said to his mother, The 1,100 shekels of silver were taken from you, about which you cursed, and spoke of also in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. Behold, I took it. And his mother said, Be blessed of the Lord, my son. 3 When he had given back the 1,100 of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly given the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now I am giving it to you. 4 He gave the money back to his mother. His mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to a refiner, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image. They were in the house of Micah. 5 The man Micah had a house of gods and made an ephod and household gods and anointed one of his sons who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel but everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 7 There was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah. He was a Levite who stayed there. 8 The man left the city from Bethlehemjudah to live where he could find a place. He came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled. 9 Micah said to him, Where do you come from? He said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah and I go to live where I may find a place. 10 Micah said to him, Live with me and be a father and a priest to me and I will give you ten shekels of silver by the year and a suit of clothes and your food. So the Levite went in. 11 The Levite was content to live with the man and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 12 Micah consecrated the Levite. The young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will do me good, since I have a Levite as my priest.
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