Judges 17 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah.

He said to his mother, "Those eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you — the ones you pronounced a curse about while I was listening — look, I have the silver. I'm the one who took it." His mother said, "May Yahweh show you favor, my son!"

When he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, she said, "I'm dedicating this silver to Yahweh from my own hand, for my son — to make a carved image and a metal-cast idol. So now, I'm giving it back to you."

So he gave the silver back to his mother, and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal-cast idol. And it was placed in Micah's house.

Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods, and he installed one of his sons to serve as his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did whatever seemed right to them.

Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the clan of Judah, who was a Levite living there as an outsider.

The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to find a place to settle wherever he could. On his journey, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.

Micah asked him, "Where are you coming from?" He replied, "I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I'm traveling around looking for a place to settle."

Micah said to him, "Stay with me and be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your food." So the Levite went in.

The Levite agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became like one of Micah's own sons.

Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in Micah's house.

Then Micah said, "Now I know that Yahweh will be good to me, because I have a Levite as my priest."