Micah’s Priest
1 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah. 2 He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver taken from you, and that I heard you place a curse on—here’s the silver. I took it.”
Then his mother said, “My son, may you be blessed by the LORD! ” r
3 He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate s the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit to make a carved image and a silver idol. I will give it back to you.” 4 So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took five pounds of silver and gave it to a silversmith. He made it into a carved image and a silver idol, and it was in Micah’s house.
5 This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, t and installed one of his sons to be his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel; u everyone did whatever seemed right to him.
7 There was a young man, a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who was staying within the clan of Judah. v 8 The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. On his way he came to Micah’s home in the hill country of Ephraim.
9 “Where do you come from? ” Micah asked him.
He answered him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m going to stay wherever I can find a place.”
10 Micah replied, “Stay with me and be my father w and priest, and I will give you four ounces of silver a year, along with your clothing and provisions.” So the Levite went in 11 and agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. 12 Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest x and lived in Micah’s house. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”
A. In the areas of religious and military practices (17:1–18:31). 17:1–5. The first of two extended narratives begins with the return of some stolen silver by one of only two named characters within the epilogue. The specification of his name (17:1) is probably for ironic purposes, as Micah (meaning “Who Is Like the Lord”) turns out to be an idol worshiper. In any event, after he returns the silver to his mother, likely out of fear for the curse she has placed, the mother invokes a blessing from the Lord, presumably to cancel out her earlier curse (17:2). She then decides to dedicate the silver to the Lord but, bizarrely, to have an idol made (17:3). Note that, although the text speaks of “a carved image and a silver idol,” this may be a figure of speech in which the two actually represent the same thing: a carved image overlaid with molten metal. For the pronoun in the last clause of 17:4 is actually singular in Hebrew; thus, “it was in Micah’s house.” As it turns out, Micah has his own household shrine, which already houses an ephod and some idols (17:5). In addition, he has established his own sons as priests, which is a clear violation of the law, as Micah is an Ephraimite (see 17:1) and Ex 28:41–43 and Nm 25:10–13 stipulate that only a specific group of Levites can serve as priests.
17:6. It is at this juncture that the full refrain “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him” appears for the first time. The phrase “everyone did whatever seemed right to him” is likely an allusion to Dt 12:8, where “everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own sight” is specifically prohibited in the context of worshiping the Lord not just anywhere but at the place chosen by him. But while this first appearance of the refrain may be intended to draw attention to Micah’s illegitimate worship, the other appearances of this refrain within the epilogue, be it in full (21:25) or reduced (18:1; 19:1) form, are probably intended to serve as a commentary on the general anarchy of the period.
17:7–13. As the story continues, the focus briefly shifts to a young Levite who has been living in Bethlehem of Judah but who is now traveling in search of another place to stay, presumably where he will find new employment (17:7–9). Already this information raises all kinds of questions. First, Bethlehem is not one of the Levitical cities listed in Jos 21:9–16, so why was he living there previously? As for his search for a new place of residence and employment, since Dt 18:6–8 guarantees a means of livelihood and employment at the main sanctuary for any Levite leaving a Levitical city, why does he need to travel around looking for employment? If these already hint at the Levite’s disregard for Levitical stipulations, then the most egregious violation would be his eventual acceptance of Micah’s offer to serve as his priest (17:10–12). For not only is the household shrine illegitimate, but, as one discovers later, this Levite is also a direct descendant not of Aaron or Phinehas but of Moses (18:30) and is thus just as ineligible to serve as priest as Micah’s sons (cf. Ex 28:41–43; 29:44; Nm 25:10–13). Micah’s confidence in the Lord’s blessings because he now has a Levitical priest (17:13) is thus greatly misplaced.