Keluaran 20:23

20:23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, ¹  nor make gods of gold for yourselves. ² 

Hakim-hakim 17:3-4

17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate ³  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.” ⁴  17:4 When he gave the silver back to his mother, she ⁵  took two hundred pieces of silver ⁶  to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house. ⁷ 

Yesaya 30:22

30:22 You will desecrate your silver-plated idols ⁸ 

and your gold-plated images. ⁹ 

You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag,

saying to them, “Get out!”

[20:23]  ¹ tn The direct object of the verb must be “gods of silver.” The prepositional phrase modifies the whole verse to say that these gods would then be alongside the one true God.

[20:23]  ² tn Heb “neither will you make for you gods of gold.”

[20:23]  sn U. Cassuto explains that by the understanding of parallelism each of the halves apply to the whole verse, so that “with me” and “for you” concern gods of silver or gods of gold (Exodus, 255).

[17:3]  ³ tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

[17:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.

[17:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “his mother.” The pronoun (“she”) has been substituted for the noun (“mother”) in the translation because of English style.

[17:4]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “and gave it.” The referent (the pieces of silver) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it was in Micah’s house.”

[30:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “the platings of your silver idols.”

[30:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “the covering of your gold image.”