And there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou didst utter {Or, an adjuration}a curse, and didst also speak it in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be my son of Jehovah.
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I verily {Or, had dedicated}dedicate the silver unto Jehovah from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.
And when he restored the money unto his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Micah.
And the man Micah had a house of {Or, God}gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and {Hebrew: filled the hand of.}consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there.
And the man departed out of the city, out of Beth-lehem-judah, to sojourn where he could find a place, and he came to the hill-country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.
And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Beth-lehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten pieces of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.
And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
Then said Micah, Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
Querverweise zu Richter 17,10 Ri 17,10
And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.
And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be priest unto the house of one man, or to be priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thy house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
And ye have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hearken unto lies.
And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?
and said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will {See chapter 10:4.}deliver him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver.
And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thy hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Jehovah by him, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness?
Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the {Or, box}bag {Or, carried what was put therein}took away what was put therein.
So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present {Hebrew: in his hand.}with him, {Or, and}even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness?
For the love of money is a root of all {Or, evils.}kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died: and Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over {Hebrew: his face.}him, and said, My father, my father, the {Or, chariot}chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!
Tend the flock of God which is among you, {Some ancient authorities omit exercising the oversight.}exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, {Some ancient authorities omit according to the will of God.}according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
I was a father to the needy:And {Or, the cause which i knew not}the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.
and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.