1 Once there was a man named Micah who lived in the Ephraim highlands.
2 He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you led you to declare a curse and even to repeat it when I could hear. I have that silver. I’m the one who took it, and now I’ll give it back to you."His mother replied, "May the Lord bless you, my son!"
3 When he gave the eleven hundred pieces of silver back to his mother, she said, "I wholeheartedly devote this silver to the Lord, to be made into a sculpted image and a molded image for my son."
4 So he gave the silver back to his mother, and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used it for a sculpted image and a molded image. And they were placed in Micah’s house.
5 This man Micah had his own sanctuary. He made a priestly vest and divine images and appointed one of his sons to be his personal priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right.
7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the area of the Judahite clan. He was a Levite residing there as an immigrant.
8 The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle as an immigrant wherever he could find a place. He came to Micah’s house in the Ephraim highlands while he was making his way.
9 "Where are you from?" Micah asked him.He replied, "I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m looking to settle as an immigrant anywhere I can find a place."
10 So Micah said to him, "Stay with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I’ll give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your basic needs."
11 The Levite agreed to stay with him; and the young man became like one of his own sons.
12 Micah appointed the Levite so that the young man became his personal priest and lived in Micah’s sanctuary.
13 And Micah said to himself, Now I know that the Lord will give me good things, because a Levite has become my priest.