< Judges 17 >
1 And there is a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, and his name [is] Micah,
And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 and he says to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which have been taken of yours, and [of which] you have sworn, and also spoken in my ears; behold, the silver [is] with me, I have taken it”; and his mother says, “Blessed [is] my son of YHWH.”
And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou didst curse, and spoke of also in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.
3 And he gives back the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother says, “I had certainly sanctified the silver to YHWH, from my hand, for my son, to make a carved image, and a molten image; and now, I give it back to you.”
And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to thee.
4 And he gives back the money to his mother, and his mother takes two hundred pieces of silver, and gives them to a refiner, and he makes them a carved image, and a molten image, and it is in the house of Micah.
Yet he restored the money to his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the silversmith, who made of it a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
5 As for the man Micah, he has a house of gods, and he makes an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrates the hand of one of his sons, and he is for a priest to him;
And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
6 in those days there is no king in Israel, each does that which is right in his own eyes.
In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
7 And there is a young man of Beth-Lehem-Judah, of the family of Judah, and he [is] a Levite, and he [is] a sojourner there.
And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 And the man goes out of the city, out of Beth-Lehem-Judah, to sojourn where he finds, and comes to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to work his way.
And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.
9 And Micah says to him, “Where do you come from?” And he says to him, “I [am] a Levite of Beth-Lehem-Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I find.”
And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? And he said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
10 And Micah says to him, “Dwell with me, and be for a father and for a priest to me, and I give ten pieces of silver to you for the days, and a suit of garments, and your sustenance”; and the Levite goes [in].
And Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy sustenance. So the Levite went in.
11 And the Levite is willing to dwell with the man, and the young man is to him as one of his sons.
And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.
12 And Micah consecrates the hand of the Levite, and the young man is for a priest to him, and he is in the house of Micah,
And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 and Micah says, “Now I have known that YHWH does good to me, for the Levite has been for a priest to me.”
Then said Micah, Now I know that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite for my priest.