New Revised Standard Version
They said to him, “Keep quiet! Put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one person, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?”

Contemporary English Version
"Quiet!" the men said. "Keep your mouth shut and listen. Why don't you come with us and be our priest, so you can tell us what God wants us to do? You could stay here and be a priest for one man's family, but wouldn't you rather be the priest for a clan or even a whole tribe of Israel?"

New American Bible
they said to him, “Be still! Put your hand over your mouth! Come with us and be our father and priest. Is it better for you to be priest for the family of one man or to be priest for a tribe and a clan in Israel?”

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they said to him: Hold thy peace, and put thy finger on thy mouth, and come with us, that we may have thee for a father, and a priest. Whether is better for thee, to be a priest in the house of one man, or in a tribe and family in Israel?

And they said to him: Hold thy peace, and put thy finger on thy mouth, and come with us, that we may have thee for a father, and a priest. Whether is better for thee, to be a priest in the house of one man, or in a tribe and family in Israel?

lay thine.

Job 21:5 Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.

Job 29:9 The princes ceased to speak, and laid the finger on their mouth.

Job 40:5,6 One thing I have spoken, which I wish I had not said: and another, to which I will add no more. . . .

Proverbs 30:32 There is that hath appeared a fool after he was lifted up on high: for if he had understood, he would have laid his hand upon his mouth.

Micah 7:16 The nations shall see, and shall be confounded at all their strength: they shall put the hand upon the mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

a father

Judges 17:10 And Michas said: Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee every year ten pieces of silver, and a double suit of apparel, and thy victuals.

2 Kings 6:21 And the king of Israel said to Eliseus, when he saw them: My father, shall I kill them?

2 Kings 8:8,9 And the king said to Hazael: Take with thee presents, and go to meet the man of God, and consult the Lord by him, saying: Can I recover of this my illness? . . .

2 Kings 13:14 Now Eliseus was sick of the illness whereof he died: and Joas, king of Israel, went down to him, and wept before him, and said: O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the guider thereof.

Matthew 23:9 And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.