Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 17:3

"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." — Judges 17:3 (ASV)

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. —We cannot tell 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 that have been used even in the Christian Church in favor of image-worship.

The word used for a graven image is pesel, and for a molten image is massecah. These are the very words used in the curse against idolaters in Deuteronomy 27:15.

Some suppose the two words are 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 two silver “calves,” like that of the wilderness, and those afterwards set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel.

This, however, was a common form that the violation of the second commandment took, and it probably involved much less blame than other violations of it. This was 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 recognized cherubic emblem and had consequently been deliberately sanctioned in the Temple's symbolism (Exodus 20:23; Exodus 32:4–5; 1 Kings 7:25, and others).

Some suppose that the massecah was the pedestal of the pesel, and that it was too heavy for the Danites to carry away, as it is not mentioned among the things they seized.

Now therefore I will restore it to you. —Rather, for you—in which case “I will restore it” may possibly mean “use it for its original purpose for your advantage.” If not, a slight correction would give us the much simpler reading of the Syriac, “restore it to me.”