Today is the third day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here. It's great to be here with you.

It's great to be here with you together around the global campfire as we gather again for another day and another step forward in the Scriptures.

And we have wound our way from the beginning of the year and the beginning of the Bible all the way into the book of Judges.

And we read of the story of the judge named Samson yesterday. We'll continue forward as we meet the other judges of Israel.

And once again not to be redundant, but judges covers the centuries between Joshua's death and the emergence of kings in Israel.

So the judges were the leaders of Israel during or between during during that transitional period, those transitional centuries.

And so let's dive in. We're reading from the English standard version this week. Judges, chapters 17 and 18.

There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah and he said to his mother,

the 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you about which you uttered a curse and also spoke in my ears,

behold, the silver is with me, I took it. And his mother said,

Blessed be my son by the Lord and he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother.

And his mother said, I dedicate a silver to the Lord from my hand, for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image.

Now therefore I will restore it to you.

So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmiths who made it into a carved image and a metal image.

And it was in the house of Micah.

And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and households gods and ordained one of his sons who became his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah who was a Levite and he sojourned there.

And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place.

And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.

A Micah said to him, where do you come from?

And he said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.

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