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Judges 17:7–13, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Judges 17:7–13
A searching Levite becomes Micah's hired father-priest
A young Levite is looking for a place
A young man out of Bethlehem-judah, of the family of Judah, who is a Levite, sojourns there, then leaves to sojourn where he may find a place. He comes to Micah's house in Ephraim as he journeys. Micah asks whence he comes. He is a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, and he goes to sojourn where he may find a place. Landless religious labor is on the road, looking for a house.
Wages buy a father-priest, and Micah counts it as blessing
Micah says, Dwell with me, be unto me a father and a priest, and he will give ten shekels of silver by the year, a suit of apparel, and his victuals. The Levite is content to dwell, and the young man is unto Micah as one of his sons. Micah consecrates the Levite, and the young man becomes his priest and is in his house. Then Micah says, Now I know that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
"Father" is an honorific laid on a dependent employee. Lineage is treated as a lucky object. The Levite's consent is real and economically constrained. Micah's confidence is transactional: the right hire will make God generous. A credential in a forbidden shrine does not become covenant faithfulness because both men are satisfied.
How this should shape us
Pay religious workers fairly, and keep them free to refuse an improper job. Do not hire a financially vulnerable minister to certify a founder's private system as divine favor.
Teach it back
Explain Judges 17:7–13 in your own words. Include its scene movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion or imitation the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Readers assign differing weight to exploitation, ambition, and mutual benefit. The wage, residence, unauthorized shrine, and Micah's explicit prosperity inference anchor the critique.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Judges 17:7–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clause relationships, repeated terms, wordplays, and translation control.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Judg.xml, 17:7–13
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, poetic, geographical, social, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Judges PDF, printed pp. 481-482, translation and notes on 17:7–13
Supports: Recent whole-book literary organization, differentiated judge portraits, progressive decline, Abimelech, Samson, and the double epilogue within the limits of preview access.
Assis, Before There Were Kings, inspected contents and exposed summaries for the relevant literary section, printed pp. 341-402
Supports: Compositional alternatives, rhetorical relationships among prologue, central narratives, and epilogues, and the material YHWH-kingship alternative for the no-king refrain.
Wong, Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges, University of Edinburgh repository abstract and chapter descriptions
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Judges 17:7–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Judges
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clause relationships, repeated terms, wordplays, and translation control.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Judg.xml, 17:7–13
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Judges with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, poetic, geographical, social, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Judges PDF, printed pp. 481-482, translation and notes on 17:7–13
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph preview
Before There Were Kings: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Judges
Elie Assis
Penn State University Press / Eisenbrauns, 2024
Supports: Recent whole-book literary organization, differentiated judge portraits, progressive decline, Abimelech, Samson, and the double epilogue within the limits of preview access.
Exact location: Assis, Before There Were Kings, inspected contents and exposed summaries for the relevant literary section, printed pp. 341-402
Open source ↗doctoral thesis repository record
Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges: An Inductive, Rhetorical Study
Gregory T. K. Wong
University of Edinburgh, 2005
Supports: Compositional alternatives, rhetorical relationships among prologue, central narratives, and epilogues, and the material YHWH-kingship alternative for the no-king refrain.
Exact location: Wong, Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges, University of Edinburgh repository abstract and chapter descriptions
Open source ↗