CHAPTER 17
1 In that time was a man, that was called Micah, of the hill of Ephraim.
2 And he said to his mother, Lo! I have a thousand and an hundred plates of silver, which thou separatedest to thee, and on which thou cursedest, while I heard; and those be with me. To whom she answered, Blessed be my son of the Lord.
3 Therefore he yielded those [or them] to his mother; and she said to him, I hallowed and avowed this silver to the Lord, that my son receive of mine hand, and make a graven image and a molten image; and now I give it to thee.
4 Therefore he yielded to his mother; and she took two hundred plates of silver, and gave those [or them] to a workman of silver, that he should make of those [or them] a graven image and molten image, that was in the house of Micah.
5 And Micah also separated a little house, or an oratory, therein to God; and made ephod, and teraphim, that is, a priest’s cloth, and idols; and he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he was made a priest to him.
6 In those days was no king in Israel, but each man did that, that seemed rightful [or right] to himself.
7 Also another young waxing man was of Bethlehem of Judah, of the kindred of Judah, and he was a deacon [or Levite], and dwelled there.
8 And he went out of the city of Bethlehem, and would be a pilgrim, wherever he found profitable to him-self. And when he made journey, and had come into the hill of Ephraim, and had bowed [down] a little into the house of Micah,
9 Micah asked him, From whence comest thou? Which answered, I am a deacon [or Levite] of Bethlehem of Judah, and I go, that I dwell where I may, and where I see that it is profitable to me.
10 And Micah said, Dwell thou with me, and be thou to me a father and priest; and I shall give to thee by each year ten plates of silver, and a double clothing, and those things that be necessary to lifelode. [And] He assented,
11 and dwelled with that man; and he was to that man as one of his sons.
12 And Micah filled his hand, and he had the young man priest with him,
13 and he said, Now I know, that God shall do well to me, having a priest of the kin of Levi.