Micah’s Idolatry

17 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse ^[a]in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” ³ He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son ^(A)to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return ^[b]them to you.” ⁴ So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made ^[c]them into a graven image and a molten image, and ^[d]they were in the house of Micah. ⁵ And the man Micah had a ^[e](B)shrine and he made an ^(C)ephod and ^[f](D)household idols and ^[g]consecrated one of his sons, ^(E)that he might become his priest. ⁶ In those days ^(F)there was no king in Israel; ^(G)every man did what was right in his own eyes.

⁷ Now there was a young man from ^(H)Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was ^[h]staying there. ⁸ Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to ^[i]stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the ^(I)hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. ⁹ Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to ^[j]stay wherever I may find a place.” ¹⁰ Micah then said to him, “Dwell with me and be ^(J)a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹ The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. ¹² So Micah ^[k]consecrated the Levite, and the young man ^(K)became his priest and ^[l]lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”

The Lord Exalts the Humble.

Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 ^(A)What shall we say then? Are we to ^(B)continue in sin so that grace may increase? ^2 (C)May it never be! How shall we who ^(D)died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who have been ^(E)baptized into ^(F)Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been ^(G)buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ^(H)raised from the dead through the ^(I)glory of the Father, so we too might walk in ^(J)newness of life. ⁵ For ^(K)if we have become ^[a]united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ^[b]in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our ^(L)old ^[c]self was ^(M)crucified with Him, in order that our ^(N)body of sin might be ^[d]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷ for ^(O)he who has died is ^[e]freed from sin.

⁸ Now ^(P)if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been ^(Q)raised from the dead, ^[f]is never to die again; ^(R)death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Even so consider yourselves to be ^(S)dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Therefore do not let sin ^(T)reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³ and do not go on ^(U)presenting ^[g]the members of your body to sin as ^[h]instruments of unrighteousness; but ^(V)present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as ^[i]instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For ^(W)sin shall not ^(X)be master over you, for ^(Y)you are not under law but ^(Z)under grace.

¹⁵ What then? ^(AA)Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? ^(AB)May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not ^(AC)know that when you present yourselves to someone as ^(AD)slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of ^(AE)sin ^[j]resulting in death, or of obedience ^[k]resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But ^(AF)thanks be to God that ^[l]though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that ^(AG)form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and having been ^(AH)freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ^19 (AI)I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just ^(AJ)as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, ^[m]resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, ^[n]resulting in sanctification.

²⁰ For ^(AK)when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ Therefore what ^[o](AL)benefit were you then ^[p]deriving ^[q]from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is ^(AM)death. ²² But now having been ^(AN)freed from sin and ^(AO)enslaved to God, you ^[r]derive your ^[s](AP)benefit, ^[t]resulting in sanctification, and ^(AQ)the outcome, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of ^(AR)sin is death, but the free gift of God is ^(AS)eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.