English / ERV
Judges 17
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1There was a man named Micah who lived in the hill country of Ephraim.
- 2Micah said to his mother, “Do you remember that someone stole 28 pounds[1] of silver from you? I heard you say a curse about that. Well, I have the silver. I took it.” His mother said, “The LORD bless you, my son.”
- 3Micah gave the 28 pounds of silver back to his mother. Then she said, “I will give this silver as a special gift to the LORD. I will give it to my son so that he can make a statue and cover it with the silver. So now, son, I give the silver back to you.”
- 4But Micah gave the silver back to his mother. So she took about 5 pounds[2] of the silver and gave them to a silversmith.[3] He used the silver to make a statue covered with silver. The statue was put in Micah’s house.
- 5Micah had a temple for worshiping idols. He made an ephod[4] and some house idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest.
- 6(At that time the Israelites did not have a king, so everyone did what they thought was right.)
- 7There was a young man who was a Levite from the city of Bethlehem in Judah. He had been living among the tribe of Judah.
- 8He left Bethlehem to look for another place to live. As he was traveling, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of the land of Ephraim.
- 9Micah asked him, “Where have you come from?” The young man answered, “I am a Levite from the city of Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a place to live.”
- 10Then Micah said to him, “Live with me. Be my father and my priest. I will give you 4 ounces[5] of silver each year. I will also give you clothes and food.” The Levite did what Micah asked.
- 11The young Levite agreed to live with Micah. He became like one of Micah’s own sons.
- Micah chose him to be his priest. So the young man became a priest and lived in Micah’s house.