Judges 17 - Easy To Read Version

¹ There was a man named Micah that lived in the hill country of Ephraim.

² Micah said to his mother, “Do you remember that someone stole 28 pounds [124] of silver from you. I heard you say a curse about that. Well, I have the silver. I took it.”

³ Micah gave the 28 pounds [125] 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 he can make a statue and cover it with the silver. So now, son, I give the silver back to you.”

⁴ But Micah gave the silver back to his mother. So she took about 5 pounds [126] of the silver and gave them to a silversmith. [127] The silversmith used the silver to make a statue covered with silver. The statue was put in Micah’s house.

⁵ Micah had a temple for worshiping idols. He made an ephod [128] and some house idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest. (

⁶ At that time, the people of Israel did not have a king. So each person did what he himself thought was right.)

⁷ There was a young man that was a Levite. [129] He was from the city of Bethlehem, Judah. He had been living among the family group of Judah.

⁸ That young man left Bethlehem, Judah. He was looking for another place to live. As he was traveling, he came to Micah’s house. Micah’s house was in the hill country of the land of Ephraim.

⁹ Micah asked him, “Where have you come from?”

¹⁰ Then Micah said to him, “Live with me. Be my father and my priest. I will give you 4 ounces [131] of silver each year. I will also give you clothes and food.”

¹¹ The young Levite agreed to live with Micah. The young man became like one of Micah’s own sons.

¹² Micah chose him to be his priest. So the young man became a priest and lived in Micah’s house.

¹³ And Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me. I know this because I have a man from the family group of Levi to be my priest.”