Hosea 11:2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. We read frequently of graven images and of molten images, and the words are become so familiar as names of idolatrous images that, although they axe not well chosen to express the Hebrew names, it seems not advisable to change them for others that might more exactly correspond with the original. The graven imago was not a thing wrought in metal by the tool of the workman we should now call an engraver; nor was the molten image an image made of metals or any ether substance, melted and shaped in a mould. In fact, the graven image and the molten image are the same thing under different names. The images of the ancient idolaters were first cut out of wood by the carpenter, as is very evident from the prophet Isaiah. This figure of wood was overlaid with plates either of gold or silver, or sometimes perhaps of an inferior metal, and in this finished state it was called a graven image (i.e., a carved image), in reference to the inner solid figure of wood, and a molten (i.e., an overlaid or covered) image, in reference to the outer metalline case or cover. Sometimes both epithets are applied to it at once (Nahum 1:14; Habakkuk 2:18). The English word molten conveys a notion of melting or fusion. But this is not the case with the Hebrew word for which it is given. The Hebrew signifies to spread, or cover all over, either by pouring forth a substance in fusion, or in spreading a cloth over or before, or by hammering on metalline plates. (Bishop Horsley.) Parallel Verses KJV: As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. |
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