וַיְמַלֵּ֤א מִיכָה֙ אֶת יַ֣ד הַלֵּוִ֔י וַיְהִי ל֥וֹ הַנַּ֖עַר לְכֹהֵ֑ן וַיְהִ֖י בְּבֵ֥ית מִיכָֽה
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Judges 17:12
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Judges 17:12 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Micah filled the hand of the Levite, and the young man was to him for a priest, and he was in the house of Micah.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And Michah consecrated the Leuite, and the yong man was his Priest, and was in the house of Michah.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And Michas filled his hand, and had the young man with him, for his priest, saying:
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
And Micah consecrateth the hand of the Levite, and the young man is to him for a priest, and he is in the house of Micah,
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
And Micah consecrates the hand of the Levite, and the young man is for a priest to him, and he is in the house of Micah,
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Micah set apart the Levite for sacred duties, and the young man became his priest, and was in Micah's house.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Micah filled the hand of the Levite, and the young man was to him for a priest, and he was in the house of Micah.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
Micah ordained the Levite as his own priest and he lived in Micah's house.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And Micah gave the position to the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
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מִיכָה֙
Mîykâh
H4318
“Micah”
Noun, Proper
- Appears 34× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Judges 17:5
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Proper
Full BDB Definition
Micah or Micaiah or Michah = "who is like God"
- the 6th in order of the minor prophets; a native of Moresheth, he prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and was contemporary with the prophets Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah
- an Ephraimite during the period of the judges
- a descendant of Joel the Reubenite
- son of Meribbaal and grandson of Jonathan
- a Kohathite Levite, the eldest son of Uzziel the brother of Amram
- father of Abdon, a man of high station in the reign of Josiah
- son of Imlah and a prophet of Samaria who predicted the defeat and death of king Ahab of Israel
- וַיְמַלֵּ֤א mâlêʼ H4390 “and · to fill” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- מִיכָה֙ Mîykâh H4318 “Micah” Noun, Proper
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- יַ֣ד yâd H3027 “hand of” Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct
- הַלֵּוִ֔י Lêvîyîy H3881 “the · Levite” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- וַיְהִי hâyâh H1961 “and · to be” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- הַנַּ֖עַר naʻar H5288 “the · boy” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- לְכֹהֵ֑ן kôhên H3548 “to/for · priest” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- וַיְהִ֖י hâyâh H1961 “and · to be” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- בְּבֵ֥ית bayith H1004 “in/at · house of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
- מִיכָֽה Mîykâh H4318 “Micah” Noun, Proper
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 12
- words
- 9
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Shared distinctive vocabulary
מִיכָה֙ Micah H4318 occurs in 31 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 3 verbs
- 7 nouns
- 1 preposition
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַיְמַלֵּ֤א Piel · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיְהִי Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיְהִ֖י Qal · Sequential Imperfect
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 12 Hebrew tokens and 17 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Cross-references
5Topical passages linked to Judges 17:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Judges 18:30 The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
- Numbers 16:5 and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, In the morning Yahweh will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near to him.
- Numbers 16:8–10 Moses said to Korah, Hear now, you sons of Levi:
- 1 Kings 12:31 He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
- 1 Kings 13:33–34 After this thing Jeroboam didn't return from his evil way, but made again from among all the people priests of the high places: whoever would, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
καί πληρόω μιχαιας ὁ χείρ ὁ λευίτης καί γίγνομαι αὐτός εἰς ἱερεύς καί γίγνομαι ἐν οἶκος μιχαιας
And Michaias consecrated the Levite, and he became to him a priest, and he was in the house of Michaias.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
וְקָרֵיב מִיכָה יַת קוּרְבַּן לֵיוָאָה וַהֲוָה לֵיהּ עוּלֵימָא לְכָהִין וַהֲוָה בְּבֵית מִיכָה:
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Judges, in the Historical, opens this verse with 12 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Mîykâh (“Micah”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- The word Mîykâh carries the sense “Micah.” How does it shape the verse?
- How does Judges 17:5, which shares the word «Micah», read alongside this verse?
- What does the repetition of “Micah” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
- The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
- «וַיְמַלֵּ֤א» is a Piel Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
- “Micah” occurs 2× in this single verse.
- 9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Judges 17:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.