As they called them— As I called them, so they went from me. Houbigant.
Graven images— We read frequently, in our English bibles, of graven images, and of molten images: and the words are become so familiar, as names of idolatrous images, that although they are not well chosen to express the Hebrew names, it seems not advisable to change them for others which might more exactly correspond with the original.
The graven image was not a thing wrought in metal by the tool of the workman whom we should now call an engraver; nor was the molten image an image made of metal, or any other 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 (that is to say, a carved image), in reference to the inner solid figure of wood, and a molten (that is to say, an overlaid, or covered) image, in reference to the outer metalline case or covering. And sometimes both epithets are applied to it at once. I will cut off the graven and molten image; Nahum 1:14. Again, What profiteth the graven and molten image? Habakkuk 2:18. The English word molten conveys a notion of melting, or fusion. But this is not the case with the Hebrew word פסל pesel, for which it is given. The Hebrew word signifies generally to overspread, or cover all over, in whatever manner, according to the different subject, the overspreading or covering be effected; whether by pouring forth a substance in fusion, or by spreading a cloth over or before, or by hammering on metalline plates. It is on account of this metalline case, that we find a founder employed to make a graven image, Joshua 17:3 and that we read in Isaiah of a workman that melteth a graven image; Isaiah 40:19.: and in another place we find the question, who hath molten a graven image? Isaiah 44:10. In these two passages the words should be overlayeth, and overlaid.