Judges 17

1 And there was a man from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that you took for yourself — and you cursed me, and you spoke in my hearing — look, the silver is with me. I took it.” And his mother said, “May my son be blessed by the Lord.” [a]

3 And he gave the eleven hundred pieces of silver back to his mother; and his mother said, “I have truly made the silver holy to the Lord, out of my hand, for my son, to make a carved image and a cast image; and now I will give it back to you.” [b] 4 But he gave the silver back to his mother; and his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave it to a silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a cast image; and it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the house of Micah was a house of God to him; and he made an ephod and household gods, and he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he became his priest. [c] 6 In those days there was no king in Israel; each man did what was right in his own eyes.

7 And there was a young man from Bethlehem, of the clan of Judah; and he was a Levite, and he was living there as a foreigner. [d] 8 And the man left Bethlehem, the city of Judah, to live as a foreigner in whatever place he might find; and he came as far as the hill country of Ephraim, and as far as the house of Micah, as he made his way. 9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem of Judah, and I am going to live as a foreigner in whatever place I may find.”

10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a day, and a set of clothes, and what you need to live.” And the Levite went, [e] 11 and he began to live as a foreigner with the man; and the young man was to him like one of his own sons. 12 And Micah filled the hand of the Levite, and he became his priest, and he was in the house of Micah. 13 And Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will do me good, because the Levite has become my priest.”