Focused Passage
Micah's Shrine: Private Religion in a Leaderless Israel
Judges 17 begins the book's double epilogue by showing covenant disorder at the household level: Micah returns stolen silver, his mother dedicates it to the LORD while commissioning images, Micah builds a private shrine and priesthood, and a wandering Levite is hired to give the arrangement a veneer of legitimacy.
Berean Standard Bible, Public Domain - Translation notes - Reference sources
7And there was a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been residing within the clan of Judah.
8This man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to settle where he could find a place. And as he traveled, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.
9“Where are you from?” Micah asked him. “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he replied, “and I am on my way to settle wherever I can find a place.”
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