Micah answered, "What do you mean, 'What's the matter?' You take my priest and the gods that I made, and walk off ! What have I got left?"

I know that you left because you were so anxious to get back home, but why did you steal my household gods?"

Emperor Cyrus gave them back the bowls and cups that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem and had put in the temple of his gods.

"The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities."

Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his hometown, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.

Then the five men who had gone to spy on the country around Laish said to their companions, "Did you know that here in one of these houses there is a wooden idol covered with silver? There are also other idols and an ephod. What do you think we should do?"

Tell them to make a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered shirt, a turban, and a sash. They are to make these priestly garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so that they can serve me as priests.

"Make a breastpiece for the High Priest to use in determining God's will. It is to be made of the same materials as the ephod and with similar embroidery.

When Abiathar son of Ahimelech escaped and joined David in Keilah, he took the ephod with him.

Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and during his absence Rachel stole the household gods that belonged to her father.

I know that you left because you were so anxious to get back home, but why did you steal my household gods?"

In just this way the people of Israel will have to live for a long time without kings or leaders, without sacrifices or sacred stone pillars, without idols or images to use for divination.

put sashes around their waists and tie caps on their heads. That is how you are to ordain Aaron and his sons. They and their descendants are to serve me as priests forever.

Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi.

King Jeroboam of Israel still did not turn from his evil ways but continued to choose priests from ordinary families to serve at the altars he had built. He ordained as priest anyone who wanted to be one.

This sin on his part brought about the ruin and total destruction of his dynasty.

No one chooses for himself the honor of being a high priest. It is only by God's call that a man is made a high priest---just as Aaron was.

Then he sent young men, and they burned sacrifices to the LORD and sacrificed some cattle as fellowship offerings.