Judges 17:3
New International Version
When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.”

New Living Translation
He returned the money to her, and she said, “I now dedicate these silver coins to the LORD. In honor of my son, I will have an image carved and an idol cast.”

English Standard Version
And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the 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.”

Berean Standard Bible
And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”

King James Bible
And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

New King James Version
So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you.”

New American Standard Bible
He then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly consecrate the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast metal image; so now I will return them to you.”

NASB 1995
He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.”

NASB 1977
He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.”

Legacy Standard Bible
And he then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly set apart the silver from my hand as holy to Yahweh for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; so now I will return them to you.”

Amplified Bible
He returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and she said, “I had truly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son (in his name) to make an image [carved from wood and plated with silver] and a cast image [of solid silver]; so now, I will return it to you.”

Christian Standard Bible
He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit to make a carved image and a silver idol. I will give it back to you.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit to make a carved image overlaid with silver.”

American Standard Version
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I verily dedicate the silver unto Jehovah from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And he returned the one thousand one hundred silver pieces to his mother, and his mother said: “I have certainly hallowed the silver to LORD JEHOVAH from the hands of my son, that I will make a carved and smelted image, and now return it to me.”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I had wholly consecrated the money to the Lord out of my hand for my son, to make a graven and a molten image, and now I will restore it to thee.

Douay-Rheims Bible
So he restored them to his mother, who said to him: I have consecrated and vowed this silver to the Lord, that my son may receive it at my hand, and make a graven and a molten god, so now I deliver it to thee.

English Revised Version
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, I verily dedicate the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So Micah gave the 1,100 pieces of silver back to his mother. Then his mother said, "I dedicate this silver to the LORD for my son's benefit. I want to make a carved idol and a metal idol. So now I'm giving the silver back to you."

Good News Translation
He gave the money back to his mother, and she said, "To keep the curse from falling on my son, I myself am solemnly dedicating the silver to the LORD. It will be used to make a wooden idol covered with silver. So now I will give the pieces of silver back to you."

International Standard Version
Her son gave back the 1,100 silver coins to his mother, and she said, "I'm totally giving this silver—from my hand to the LORD—so my son can make a carved image and a cast image. So I'm returning it to you."

JPS Tanakh 1917
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said: 'I verily dedicate the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore I will restore it unto thee.'

Literal Standard Version
And he gives back the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother says, “I had certainly sanctified the silver to YHWH, from my hand, for my son, to make a carved image, and a molten image; and now, I give it back to you.”

Majority Standard Bible
And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”

New American Bible
When he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, she said, “I consecrate the silver to the LORD from my own hand on behalf of my son to make an idol overlaid with silver.”

NET Bible
When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, "I solemnly dedicate this silver to the LORD. It will be for my son's benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image."

New Revised Standard Version
Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, “I consecrate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.”

New Heart English Bible
And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, "I most certainly dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image."

Webster's Bible Translation
And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to thee.

World English Bible
He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”

Young's Literal Translation
And he giveth back the eleven hundred silverlings to his mother, and his mother saith, 'I had certainly sanctified the silver to Jehovah, from my hand, for my son, to make a graven image, and a molten image; and now, I give it back to thee.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Micah's Idolatry
2said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!” 3And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.” 4So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.…

Cross References
Exodus 20:4
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

Exodus 20:23
You are not to make any gods alongside Me; you are not to make for yourselves gods of silver or gold.

Exodus 34:17
You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.

Judges 17:2
said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse--I have the silver here with me; I took it." Then his mother said, "Blessed be my son by the LORD!"

Judges 17:4
So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

Judges 18:30
The Danites set up idols for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

Isaiah 30:22
So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, "Be gone!"


Treasury of Scripture

And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to you.

I had wholly

Judges 17:13
Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.

Judges 18:5
And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

Isaiah 66:3
He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.

a graven images

Exodus 20:4,23
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: …

Leviticus 19:4
Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 12:3
And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

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Judges 17
1. Of the money that Micah first stole, then restored, his mother makes idols
5. And he makes ornaments for them
7. He hires a Levite to be his priest














(3) I had wholly dedicated the silver.--Literally, Consecrating, I consecrated--either, "I have now consecrated it" as a thanksgiving for its restoration, or "I had done so before it was stolen."

For my son--i.e., for your benefit.

To make a graven image and a molten image.--Whether in the universal decadence of religion, the people, untaught by a careless priesthood, had become ignorant of the second commandment, or whether she justified her conduct by the same considerations which have been used even in the Christian Church in favour of image-worship, we cannot tell. The word used for a graven image is pesel, and for a molten image is massecah. They are the very words used in the curse against idolaters in Deuteronomy 27:15. Some suppose the two words to be used by Hendiadys (like "cups and gold" for "golden cups" ) to describe one silver image adorned with sculptured ornament. All that is clear is that the pesel is the more prominent, but the details are left quite vague. It is therefore impossible to determine whether the graven and molten image consisted of one or of two silver "calves," like that of the wilderness, and those afterwards set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel. This, however, was a form which the violation of the second commandment was constantly liable to take, and it probably involved much less blame than other violations of it--not, as is often stated, because the Israelites had become familiar with the worship of Apis and Mnevis in Egypt, but because the calf was a recognised cherubic emblem, and had consequently been deliberately sanctioned in the symbolism of the Temple. (See Exodus 20:4; Exodus 20:23; Exodus 32:4-5; 1Kings 7:25, &c.) Some suppose that the massecah was the pedestal of the pesel, and that it was too heavy for the Danites to carry away, since it is not mentioned among the things which they seized. . . .

Verse 3. - I had wholly dedicated. It is not clear whether the words are to be rendered as in the A.V., had dedicated, expressing the dedication of them before they were stolen, or whether they merely express her present purpose so to dedicate them. But the A.V. makes very good sense. Her former purpose had been that the money should be given for her son's benefit to make his house an house of gods. Now that he had confessed, she resumed her purpose. Now therefore I restore it unto thee - that is, in the shape of the graven and molten images, as it follows in the next verse. The narrative gives a curious example of the semi-idolatry of the times. A graven image and a molten image. There is a good deal of difficulty in assigning the exact meaning of the two words here used, and their relation to one another in the worship to which they belong. The molten image (massechah), however, seems to be pretty certainly the metal, here the silver, image of a calf, the form which the corrupt worship of Jehovah took from the time when Aaron made the molten calf (Exodus 32:4, called there 'egel massechah, a molten calf) to the time when Jeroboam set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:28, 29). And that massechah means something molten is certain both from its etymology (nasach, to pour) and from what Aaron said in Exodus 32:24: "I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf." Here too Micah's mother gives the silver to the founder, i.e. to the fuser of metals. The pesel, or graven image, on the other hand, is something hewn or graven, whether in wood or stone, and sometimes overlaid with gold and silver (Deuteronomy 7:25). One might have thought, from the language of ver. 4, and from the mention of the pesel alone in Judges 18:30, 31, that only one image is here intended, which was graven with the chisel after it was cast, as Aaron's calf seems to have been. But in Judges 18:17, 18 they are mentioned separately, with the ephod and teraphim named between them, so that they must be distinct. From the above passages the pesel or graven image would seem to have been the most important object, and the difficulty is to assign the true relation of the massechah or molten image to it. Hengstenberg thinks the massechah was a pedestal on which the pesel stood, and that the ephod was the robe with which the pesel was clothed, and that the teraphim were certain tokens or emblems attached to the ephod which gave oracular answers. But this is not much more than guess-work. Berthean considers the ephod, here as elsewhere, to be the priest's garment, put on when performing the most solemn services, and specially when seeking an answer from God. And he thinks that the massechah formed a part of the ornament of the ephod, because in Judges 18:18 the Hebrew has "the pesel of the ephod." The teraphin he thinks are idols, a kind of Dii minores associated with the worship of Jehovah in this impure worship. But there does not seem to be any means at present of arriving at any certainty. The massechah might be a rich gold or silver overlaying of the wooden image, possibly movable, or it might be the separate image of a calf supposed to belong, as it were, to the pesel, and to symbolise the attributes of the Godhead.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
And when he had
וַיָּ֛שֶׁב (way·yā·šeḇ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

returned
אֶת־ (’eṯ-)
Direct object marker
Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case

the eleven
אֶֽלֶף־ (’e·lep̄-)
Number - masculine singular
Strong's 505: A thousand

hundred
וּמֵאָ֥ה (ū·mê·’āh)
Conjunctive waw | Number - feminine singular
Strong's 3967: A hundred

[shekels] of silver
הַכֶּ֖סֶף (hak·ke·sep̄)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3701: Silver, money

to his mother,
לְאִמּ֑וֹ (lə·’im·mōw)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 517: A mother, )

[she]
אִמּ֡וֹ (’im·mōw)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 517: A mother, )

said,
וַתֹּ֣אמֶר (wat·tō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“I wholly
הַקְדֵּ֣שׁ (haq·dêš)
Verb - Hifil - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 6942: To be set apart or consecrated

dedicate
הִקְדַּ֣שְׁתִּי (hiq·daš·tî)
Verb - Hifil - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 6942: To be set apart or consecrated

the silver
הַכֶּסֶף֩ (hak·ke·sep̄)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3701: Silver, money

to the LORD
לַיהוָ֨ה (Yah·weh)
Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

for my son’s
לִבְנִ֗י (liḇ·nî)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 1121: A son

benefit to make
לַֽעֲשׂוֹת֙ (la·‘ă·śō·wṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 6213: To do, make

a graven image
פֶּ֣סֶל (pe·sel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6459: An idol, image

and a molten idol.
וּמַסֵּכָ֔ה (ū·mas·sê·ḵāh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4541: A pouring over, fusion of metal, a libation, league, a coverlet

Therefore I will now
וְעַתָּ֖ה (wə·‘at·tāh)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb
Strong's 6258: At this time

return it
אֲשִׁיבֶ֥נּוּ (’ă·šî·ḇen·nū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - first person common singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

to you.”
לָֽךְ׃ (lāḵ)
Preposition | second person feminine singular
Strong's 0: 0


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OT History: Judges 17:3 He restored the eleven hundred pieces (Jd Judg. Jdg)
Judges 17:2
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