1. There was a man named Micah who lived in the hill country of Ephraim.
2. Micah said to his mother, “Do you remember that someone stole 28 pounds of silver from you? I heard you say a curse about that. Well, I have the silver. I took it.” His mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son.”
3. Micah gave the 28 pounds of silver back to his mother. Then she said, “I will give this silver as a special gift to the Lord. I will give it to my son so that he can make a statue and cover it with the silver. So now, son, I give the silver back to you.”
4. But Micah gave the silver back to his mother. So she took about 5 pounds of the silver and gave them to a silversmith. He used the silver to make a statue covered with silver. The statue was put in Micah’s house.
5. Micah had a temple for worshiping idols. He made an ephod and some house idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest.
6. (At that time the Israelites did not have a king, so everyone did what they thought was right.)