Dual Panel1ONCE there was a man named Micah from the hill-country of Ephraim
2who said to his mother, “You remember the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen from you, and how in my hearing you called down a curse on the thief? I have the money; I took it, and now I give it back to you.” His mother said, “May the LORD bless you, my son!”
3He gave back the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and she said, “I now solemnly dedicate this silver to the LORD for the benefit of my son, to make a carved image and a cast idol.”
4When he returned the money to his mother, she handed two hundred of the pieces of silver to a silversmith, who made them into an image and an idol, which were placed in Micah's house.
5This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim and installed one of his sons to be his priest.
6In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
7There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the clan of Judah, a Levite named Ben-gershom.
8He had left the city of Bethlehem to go and find somewhere to live. On his way he came to Micah's house in the hill-country of Ephraim.
9Micah asked him, “Where have you come from?” and he replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am looking for somewhere to live.”
10“Stay with me and be a father and priest to me,” Micah said. “I shall give you ten pieces of silver a year, and provide you with food and clothes.”
11The Levite agreed to stay with the man, who treated him as one of his own family.
12Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and a member of his household.
13Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will make me prosper, because I have a Levite as my priest.”