Judges · 13 verses

Judges 17

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

A thief confesses, receives a blessing, and sees the stolen silver turned into an idol—though the mother had dedicated all eleven hundred shekels and the silversmith received only two hundred.

Silver, shrine, and the household priestvv. 1–6

Micah, from the hill country of Ephraim, admits to his mother that he took the silver she had been missing. Her response is wonderfully swift: blessing, not rebuke. Once the silver is returned, she dedicates it to the LORD for Micah’s benefit, intending a graven image and a molten idol. The text does not say what became of the other nine hundred shekels; two hundred go to a silversmith, whose work is placed in Micah’s house. Micah then adds a shrine, an ephod, household idols, and one of his sons as priest. The little establishment is complete, and the chapter remarks that there was no king in Israel, so that everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

A Levite for hirevv. 7–13

A young Levite leaves Bethlehem in Judah, looking for somewhere to settle, and arrives at Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim. Micah asks where he comes from; the answer is Bethlehem, Judah, and an unsettled road ahead. Micah offers ten shekels of silver a year, clothes, provisions, and the dignified title of father and priest. The Levite agrees, becomes like a son to Micah, and is ordained. Micah’s confidence rises at once: now, he says, the LORD will be good to him because a Levite has become his priest. The household has acquired a shrine, a priest, and a cheerful conclusion, all in short order.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Judg 17:1Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim
Judg 17:2said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!”
Judg 17:3And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”
Judg 17:4So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.
Judg 17:5Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.
Judg 17:6In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judg 17:7And there was a young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah who had been residing within the clan of Judah.
Judg 17:8This 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.
Judg 17:9“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.”
Judg 17:10“Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be my father and priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your provisions.” So the Levite went in
Judg 17:11and agreed to stay with him, and the young man became like a son to Micah.
Judg 17:12 Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.
Judg 17:13Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, because a Levite has become my priest.”

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Leviperson

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

Micahperson

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 106 passages were voted onto 11 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

6 Deuteronomy 12:8You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.
6 Proverbs 12:15The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.
6 Proverbs 14:12There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
6 Judges 21:25In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
6 Judges 18:1In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of the Danites was looking for territory to occupy. For up to that time they had not come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
6 Proverbs 16:2All a man’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but his motives are weighed out by the LORD.
6 Judges 19:1Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
2 Nehemiah 13:25I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!
3 Leviticus 19:4Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the LORD your God.
3 Exodus 20:4You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
5 Judges 8:27From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.
5 Genesis 31:30Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
5 Judges 18:14Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”
5 Genesis 31:19Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
7 Ruth 1:1–2In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.
7 Micah 5:2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

Onward

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