1 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim2 said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels "of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse —I have that silver with me; I took it." Then his mother said, "The LORD bless you, my son!"3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, "I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you."4 So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels "of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah's house.5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest.6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.7 A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah,8 left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way "he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.9 Micah asked him, "Where are you from?" "I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah," he said, "and I'm looking for a place to stay."10 Then Micah said to him, "Live with me and be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels "of silver a year, your clothes and your food."11 So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.12 Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.13 And Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest."

1 Fuit eo tempore vir quidam de monte Ephraim nomine Michas, 2 qui dixit matri su : Mille et centum argenteos, quos separaveras tibi, et super quibus me audiente juraveras, ecce ego habeo, et apud me sunt. Cui illa respondit : Benedictus filius meus Domino. 3 Reddidit ergo eos matri su, qu dixerat ei : Consecravi et vovi hoc argentum Domino, ut de manu mea suscipiat filius meus, et faciat sculptile atque conflatile : et nunc trado illud tibi. 4 Reddidit igitur eos matri su : qu tulit ducentos argenteos, et dedit eos argentario, ut faceret ex eis sculptile atque conflatile, quod fuit in domo Mich. 5 Qui diculam quoque in ea deo separavit, et fecit ephod, et theraphim, id est, vestem sacerdotalem, et idola : implevitque unius filiorum suorum manum, et factus est ei sacerdos. 6 In diebus illis non erat rex in Isral, sed unusquisque quod sibi rectum videbatur, hoc faciebat.7 Fuit quoque alter adolescens de Bethlehem Juda, ex cognatione ejus : eratque ipse Levites, et habitabat ibi. 8 Egressusque de civitate Bethlehem, peregrinari voluit ubicumque sibi commodum reperisset. Cumque venisset in montem Ephraim, iter faciens, et declinasset parumper in domum Mich, 9 interrogatus est ab eo unde venisset. Qui respondit : Levita sum de Bethlehem Juda, et vado ut habitem ubi potuero, et utile mihi esse perspexero. 10 Dixitque Michas : Mane apud me, et esto mihi parens ac sacerdos : daboque tibi per annos singulos decem argenteos, ac vestem duplicem, et qu ad victum sunt necessaria. 11 Acquievit, et mansit apud hominem, fuitque illi quasi unus de filiis. 12 Implevitque Michas manum ejus, et habuit puerum sacerdotem apud se : 13 Nunc scio, dicens, quod benefaciet mihi Deus habenti Levitici generis sacerdotem.