Micah made this proposal to the Levite: "Dwell with me, and become my father and priest; I will give thee ten shekels of silver yearly, and fitting out with clothes and maintenance." אב, father, is an honourable title give to a priest as a paternal friend and spiritual adviser, and is also used with reference to prophets in 2 Kings 6:21 and 2 Kings 13:14, and applied to Joseph in Genesis 45:8. ליּמים, for the days, sc., for which a person was engaged, i.e., for the year (cf. 1 Samuel 27:7, and Leviticus 25:29). "And the Levite went," i.e., went to Micah's house. This meaning is evident from the context. The repetition of the subject, "the Levite," precludes our connecting it with the following verb ויּואל. - In Judges 17:11-13 the result is summed up. The Levite resolved (see at Deuteronomy 1:5) to dwell with Micah, who treated him as one of his sons, and entrusted him with the priesthood at his house of God. And Micah rejoiced that he had got a Levite as priest, and said, "Now I know that Jehovah will prosper me." This belief, or, to speak more correctly, superstition, for which Micah was very speedily to atone, proves that at that time the tribe of Levi held the position assigned it in the law of Moses; that is to say, that it was regarded as the tribe elected by God for the performance of divine worship.

Judges 18:4 Parallel Commentaries

hired me

Judges 17:10 And Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver by the year...

Proverbs 28:21 To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.

Isaiah 56:11 Yes, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way...

Ezekiel 13:19 And will you pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die...

Hosea 4:8,9 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity...

Malachi 1:10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nothing? neither do you kindle fire on my altar for nothing...

John 10:12,13 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees...

Acts 8:18-21 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money...

Acts 20:33 I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.

1 Timothy 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

Titus 1:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

2 Peter 2:3,14,15 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not...