Judges 17:3

3 Therefore he yielded those to his mother; and she said to him, I hallowed and avowed this silver to the Lord, that my son receive (it out) of mine hand, and make (with it) a graven image and a molten image; and now I give it to thee. (And so he gave the silver back to his mother; and she said, I now hallow and vow this silver to the Lord, to protect my son from the curse, and I ask that ye, my son, have a carved idol, and a cast image, made from it; and now I give it to thee.)

Judges 17:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 17:3

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 in images, or to make images of it.

Judges 17:3 In-Context

1 In that time was a man, that was called Micah, of the hill of Ephraim. (At that time there was a man, who was called Micah, of the hill country of Ephraim.)

2 And he said to his mother, Lo! I have a thousand and an hundred pieces of silver, which thou separatedest to thee, and on which thou cursedest, while I heard; and those be with me. To whom she answered, Blessed be my son of the Lord. (And he said to his mother, Thou haddest a thousand and a hundred pieces of silver that were taken from thee, and I heard thou curse him who robbed thee; lo! I was the one who took them. And she quickly said, May the Lord bless my son!)

3 Therefore he yielded those to his mother; and she said to him, I hallowed and avowed this silver to the Lord, that my son receive (it out) of mine hand, and make (with it) a graven image and a molten image; and now I give it to thee. (And so he gave the silver back to his mother; and she said, I now hallow and vow this silver to the Lord, to protect my son from the curse, and I ask that ye, my son, have a carved idol, and a cast image, made from it; and now I give it to thee.)

4 Therefore he yielded to his mother; and she took two hundred pieces of (the) silver, and gave those to a workman of silver, that he should make of those a graven image and (a) molten (image), that was (to be put) in the house of Micah. (And so he gave the silver back to his mother; and she took two hundred pieces of the silver, and gave them to a craftsman of silver, so that he could make them into a carved idol, and a cast image; and they were put in Micah's house.)

5 And Micah also separated a little house, or an oratory, therein to God; and made (an) ephod, and teraphim, that is, a priest's cloak, and idols; and he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he was made a priest to him (and he consecrated, or dedicated, one of his sons, and he became his priest).