17
There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it.”
His mother said, “May Yahweh bless my son!”
He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”
When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made an engraved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah.
The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim,+ and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he lived there. The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he traveled. Micah said to him, “Where did you come from?”
He said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.” 10 Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food.” So the Levite went in. 11 The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 12 Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now know I that Yahweh will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest.”
+1:1“Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.+1:2“Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.+1:7The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).+2:5“Bochim” means “weepers”.+3:16A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.+3:24or, “relieving himself”.+6:15The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”+6:191 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel+6:24or, Yahweh Shalom+6:32“Jerub-Baal” means “Let Baal contend”.+8:26A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.32 Troy ounces, so 1700 shekels is about 17 kilograms or 37.4 pounds.+9:21“Beer” is Hebrew for “well”, i.e., a village named for its well.+13:18or, wonderful+15:17“Lehi” means “jawbone”.+17:5teraphim were household idols that may have been associated with inheritance rights to the household property.