⁴ This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests,^[a] or even idols!

⁵ Micah set up a shrine for the idol, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as his personal priest.

² and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. “Listen to me, Asa!” he shouted. “Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

¹⁹ At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household idols and took them with her.

²⁶ Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.

¹¹ “From the time the daily sacrifice is stopped and the sacrilegious object that causes desecration^[a] is set up to be worshiped, there will be 1,290 days.

²⁷ The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven,^[a] but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds,^[b] he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration,^[c] until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”

⁹ But David learned of Saul’s plan and told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod and ask the Lord what he should do.

²⁷ Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.