Chapter Seventeen

1–6. The making of idolatrous objects by Micah. 7–13. The service of a Levite as priest in Micah’s house.

Judges 17:1. There was a man on the hill country of Ephraim, named Micah. Judges 17:2. He said to his mother: The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and concerning which you uttered a curse in my hearing—behold, I have the money; I took it. His mother said: Blessed be my son by the Lord! Judges 17:3. He returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother. And his mother said: I had wholly dedicated the silver to the Lord for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image; so now I return it to you. Judges 17:4. But he returned the money to his mother. His mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith. He made from them a carved image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. Judges 17:5. And Micah had a house of God. He made an ephod and teraphim, and appointed one of his sons as his priest. Judges 17:6. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes. A certain Micah from the tribe of Ephraim, from silver given to him by his mother (200 shekels, worth approximately 160 rubles in silver, about eight pounds), made a carved image and a molten image, then added to them an ephod and teraphim, and, setting up these objects in his house, probably in a special room, entrusted one of his sons to serve as priest over them. The carved image mentioned in Micah’s religious practice (pesél from rasál—to hew or carve) was probably cut in the form of a small pillar, after the manner of Canaanite standing stones (Deut 7:5), dedicated to Yahweh, like Jacob’s Bethel (Gen 28:18-19). The molten image (massékah from nasák—to pour), as is evident from various places in the Bible where this term is used (cf. Exod 32:4; Deut 9:12; 1 Kgs 14:9; 2 Kgs 17:16), was probably in the form of a calf and served as a symbolic representation of Yahweh. The ephod was either the garment of the priest himself, in the form of the high priest’s (cf. Judg 8:27), or of the image, as some suppose. Concerning the teraphim, see Gen 31:19.

Judges 17:7. A young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the tribe of Judah, a Levite, who sojourned there; Judges 17:8. this man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to find a place to live wherever he could, and as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. Judges 17:9. And Micah said to him: Where do you come from? He said to him: I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to find a place to live wherever I can. Judges 17:10. And Micah said to him: Stay with me and be to me a father and a priest; I will give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothing, and your food. Judges 17:11. The Levite went in and agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. Judges 17:12. Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. Judges 17:13. And Micah said: Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as my priest. When Micah met by chance a young Levite seeking a living, he invited him to his house and proposed that he become his priest instead of his son, offering him in payment clothing, food, and ten shekels of silver (8 rubles in silver), to which the young man gladly agreed.