Judges 17:3

Had wholly dedicated. The vehemence of her curse was due to the fact that the stolen money had been promised to “the Lord.” Yet it is not entirely clear whether she said, “I have now consecrated it” as a thanksgiving for its restoration, or, “I had done so before it was stolen.” Either meaning is possible.

Unto the Lord. Literally, “to Jehovah [Yahweh].” Thus this mother and her son were worshipers of the God of the Hebrews. But their worship had become degraded, as had that of other Israelites, to the point where they were making graven images to the Lord in direct violation of the second commandment.

A graven image. It is not clear whether the pesel (“graven image”) and the massekah (“molten image”) represent two distinct images, or one silver image adorned with sculptured ornament. Often an image was carved or graven from some base metal and then covered over by a more precious metal. One such image of a deity has been recovered from the city of Megiddo in Palestine and is now on display in the museum of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. That two images, however, were intended seems clear from ch. 18:17, where the two words are separated in a manner that the second can hardly be taken as an explanation of the first. Yet again in ch. 18:20, 30, only one is mentioned.