Judges 17

Micah’s Idolatry

¹Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim ²said to his mother, “The 27½ pounds of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.”

• JUDG 17:1[NOTE]CHAPTERS 17 TO 21 are not in time order. Moses' grandson is a priest in 18:30, and Aaron's grandson Phinehas is high priest in 20:28, so these stories probably happened early in the time of the judges.

Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by Yahweh!”

³And when he had returned the 27½ pounds of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to Yahweh for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”

• JUDG 17:3[DEMONIC]Micah's mother makes an idol and he sets up a shrine

⁴So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took five pounds of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

⁵Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest. ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

• JUDG 17:6[NOTABLE]The theme of the whole book, said twice. With no king and no shared standard, everyone made up their own rules, and chapters 17 to 21 show where that leads.
• JUDG 17:6[NOTE]NO KING. This line, or part of it, shows up four times, 17:6, 18:1, 19:1 and 21:25. It ties the last five chapters together and points ahead to Israel's kings.

⁷And there was a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been residing within the clan of Judah. ⁸This man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to settle where he could find a place. And as he traveled, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

⁹“Where are you from?” Micah asked him.

“I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he replied, “and I am on my way to settle wherever I can find a place.”

¹⁰“Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be my father and priest, and I will give you four ounces of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your provisions.”

So the Levite went in ¹¹and agreed to stay with him, and the young man became like a son to Micah.

¹²Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. ¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that Yahweh will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”

• JUDG 17:12[DEMONIC]Micah hires a Levite as priest of his idol shrine