“Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.”
So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a molten image (וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת־הַכֶּסֶף לְאִמּוֹ וַתִּקַּח אִמּוֹ מָאתַיִם כֶּסֶף וַתִּתְנוּ לַצּוֹרֵף וַיַּעֲשֶׂהוּ פֶּסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה). The mother takes two hundred of the 1,100 pieces and commissions a silversmith to create a carved image and molten image. The distinction between the פֶּסֶל (pesel, carved image) and מַסֵּכָה (massekhah, molten/cast image) is theologically significant: Exodus 20:4 prohibits making images in either form. The mother's act of commissioning violates the Decalogue explicitly, yet it is framed as consecration to the LORD. The ironies multiply: the stolen silver is returned to the thief's mother; she uses a fraction of it to violate the law; and she invokes the LORD's name throughout. The theological corruption is disguised as piety.
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