1 There was a man named Micah. He lived in the mountains of Ephraim.
2 He said to his mother, “You remember the 28 pounds of silver that were taken from you. I heard you say a curse about it. I have the silver with me. I took it.”His mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!”
3 Micah gave the 28 pounds of silver to his mother. Then she said, “I will give this silver to the Lord. I will have my son make a carved idol and an idol of melted silver. So I will give the silver back to you.”
4 So he gave the silver back to his mother. She took about 5 pounds of the silver and gave it to a silversmith. He used it to make a carved idol and an idol of melted silver. The idols were put in Micah’s house.
5 Micah had a temple for worshiping idols. He made a vest for a priest and some household idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest.
6 At that time the Israelites did not have a king. So everyone did what he thought was right.
7 There was a young man who was a Levite. He was from the city of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. He had been living with the people of Judah.