Judges 17:3

_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._ A graven image, and a molten image - the one carved from a block of wood or stone, to be plated over with silver; the other a figure formed of the solid metal east into a mould. It is observable, however, that only two hundred shekels were given to the founder; and probably the expense of making two such figures of silver, with their appurtenances (pedestals, bases, etc.), might easily cost, in those day, 200 shekels, which, at 2s.-4d. each, is about 23 British pounds-a sum not adequate to the formation of large statues (Taylor's 'Fragments')....

1-6 What is related in this, and the rest of the chapters to the end of this book, was done soon after the death of Joshua: see chap. Judges 20:28. That it might appear how happy the nation was under the Judges, here is showed how unhappy they were when there was no Judge. The love of money made Micah so undutiful to his mother as to rob her, and made her so unkind to her son, as to curse him. Outward losses drive good people to their prayers, but bad people to their curses. This woman's silver was her god, before it was made into a graven or a molten image. Micah and his mother agreed to turn their money into a god, and set up idol worship in their family. See the cause of this corruption. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and then they soon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord....

Verse Judges 17:3. _I HAD WHOLLY DEDICATED_] From this it appears that Micah's mother, though she made a superstitious use of the money, had no _idolatrous_ design, for she expressly says she had dedicated it ליהוה _layhovah, to Jehovah_; and this appears to have been the reason why she poured imprecations on him who had taken it....

Such a superstitious and unlawful mode of worshipping Yahweh is quite of a piece with Judges 8:27; Judges 11:31; 1 Kings 12:28, etc. It argues but slight acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, which, from the ignorance of reading and writing, were probably not familiar to the Israelites in those unsettled times. The mother intimates that the consecration of the silver was for the benefit of her son and his house, not for her own selfish advantage: and that she adheres to her original design of consecrating this silver for her son’s benefit....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 17:1 We here light upon quite a different kind of history from that which has preceded. We no longer have to do with judges and their mighty deeds in delivering Israel from his oppressors, but with two detached histories, which fill up the rest of the book, relating to the internal affairs of Israel. There is no note of time, except that they happened before the time of Saul the king (Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1), and. that Phinehas the son of Eleazar was alive at the time of the occurrence of the second (Judges 20:28). Both, no doubt, are long prior to Samson. The only apparent connection of the h

AND WHEN HE HAD RESTORED THE ELEVEN HUNDRED SHEKELS OF SILVER TO HIS MOTHER,.... The whole sum, having embezzled none of it: 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; this she had done either before it was stolen, and it troubled her the more, and caused her the rather to curse the man that had taken it; or after it was stolen, that if it should be recovered again she would appropriate it to such an use; so Abarbinel; and by the Lord, or Jehovah, she doubtless meant the true God; for she had no intention to forsake him, but to worship him in and by these images, and which she designed for the use of her son and his family, that they might not go so far as Shiloh to worship at the tabernacle there: THEREFORE I WILL RESTORE IT UNTO THEE; for that use, and so gave him the money again, to be laid out...

III. THE APPENDIX: ISRAEL'S INTERNAL CORRUPTION 1. Micah's and Dan's Idolatry and Its Punishment CHAPTER 17 The Images Made and the Hired Priest _ 1. The stolen money restored and the images (Judges 17:1)_ 2. The Levite hired for a priest (Judges 17:7) The last five Chapter s of the book form an appendix. The events given did not occur after Samson's death, but they happened many years before. These Chapter s are not in chronological order but arranged in this way to teach the root of the evil and its results. This answers much, if not all, of the objections of the critics. These Chapter s reveal the internal corruption which existed in Israel during the different declensions. Idolatry and lawlessness are the two characteristic features. True worship and dependence on God is

MICAH'S GRAVEN IMAGE. The dread of a curse, uttered by an indignant mother against the unknown thief of her money, made the culprit, her own son, confess his guilt. At a certain stage of religious development, blessings and curses are supposed to have supernatural potency (p. 143). In this instance the mother made her curse still more effective by devoting the lost money to Yahweh. Judges 17:2 f. Change the order: I took it; now therefore I restore it to thee. And his mother said, etc. Judges 17:4. Comparing a graven image and a molten image with it was in the house and the graven image in Judges 18:30 f., we conclude that a molten image is throughout a later addition....

WHOLLY DEDICATED. Figure of speech _Polyptoton_ (App-6). Hebrew "dedicating. had dedicated it"....

_from my hand for my son_ LXX. cod. A and Luc. reads _from my hand alone_, with a slight change in the Hebr.; i.e. the mother alone, the rightful owner, could carry out the vow; so Moore, Lagrange. But the emphasis on _alone_is not particularly required, and the text may be retained. Following the rearrangement above, the mother, not suspecting who the culprit is, consecrates her money for the benefit of her son. _a graven image and a molten image_ According to etymology the one (_pesel_) was carved out of stone or wood, the other (_massçkah_) cast in metal; elsewhere both are named together to denote idols of any kind (Deuteronomy 27:15; Isaiah 42:17); and in usage the etymological distinction was not always observed, a _pesel_, for example, could be cast in gold