3 Micah gave all the silver back to his mother. Then she said to herself, “I will give some of this silver to Yahweh.” And she said to her son, “My son, I want you to make an idol and a statue from this silver. So I will give some of this silver back to you for making these things.”
4 So when he gave all the silver to his mother, she took ◄200 pieces/about 5 pounds/1.6 kg.► of it to a ◄silversmith/man who made things from silver►. With the silver that man made an idol and a statue, and gave them to Micah. Micah put them in his house.
5 He had in his house a special ◄shrine/place for putting sacred things►. He made a sacred vest and some small idols and put them in this shrine along with the big idol and the statue. Then Micah chose one of his sons to become his priest. 6 At that time, the Israeli people did not have a king. So Micah and everyone else did whatever they considered to be the right thing to do.
7 There was a young man who had been living in Bethlehem in the area where the tribe of Judah lives. He wanted to work as a priest because he was a member of the tribe of Levi. 8 So he left Bethlehem to find another place to live and work. He came to Micah’s house in the hilly area where the tribe of Ephraim live.
9 Micah asked him, “Where are you from?”