Old Testament
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
New Testament
Judges 17
The Spirit of the Times: Bad Priests, Bad People
Micah's Idol
171There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2He said to his mother, “You know that eleven hundred shekels of silver[] which were taken from you, about which you spoke a curse that I heard—Look! I have the silver. I took it.” His mother said, “May my son be blessed by the Lord.”
3Micah returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother.
Then his mother said, “The silver that I received from my son I solemnly dedicate to the Lord to make a cast and engraved idol[] for my son's benefit.[] So now I will return it to you.”[]
4He returned the silver to his mother, and his mother gave two hundred shekels of silver to the silversmith, who made them into a cast and engraved idol, which was placed in the house of Micah.
5This man Micah had a “house of God,” where he placed a special priests vest and a household god and where he ordained[] one of his sons as his own priest.
6In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did whatever was right in his own eyes.
A Renegade Priest
7Meanwhile, there was a young man from Bethlehem of Judah, a city which belonged to a clan of Judah. He was a Levite, but he resided in Bethlehem even though he was not a Judean.[] 8This man left the city—Bethlehem of Judah—to take up residence wherever he could find a place to stay. As he went on his way, he came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim.
9Micah said to him, “Where did you come from?”
He answered, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am going to take up residence wherever I can find a place to stay.”
10Micah said to him, “Stay with me! Be a father and a priest to me. I will give you ten shekels of silver a year, an allowance for your clothing, and your food.”
So the Levite went with him. 11The Levite was willing to stay with the man, and he became like one of his sons. 12Micah ordained the Levite, so the young man became his priest and lived in Micah's house.
13Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will treat me well, because I have this Levite as my priest.”
Footnotes
- 17:2 The Hebrew text reads one thousand one hundred ___ of silver without specifying a unit of measure. It probably refers to a collection of scrap silver that weighed eleven hundred shekels. Coins were not yet in use at this time.
- 17:3 The Hebrew text has two distinct nouns meaning a cast idol and an engraved idol. The singular pronouns in the next verse seem to indicate that at this time only one idol, which was cast and engraved, was made from the silver. However, Judges 18:17-18 does refer to more than one idol.
- 17:3 Literally the silver for the Lord from my hand for my son. There are several difficulties of text and translation in this section.
- 17:3 Some translations move this sentence to verse 2, where it becomes a statement of Micah to his mother. Left here in verse 3, where the Hebrew text places it, it is a statement made by the mother about the gift of the idol(s) to Micah.
- 17:5 Literally filled the hand of. The same expression is used for Moses' ordination of priests. The same term occurs in verse 12.
- 17:7 Literally resided as an alien. The term ger often refers to an alien from a different ethnic group. Here, however, it refers to an “alien” from a different tribe.