Keluaran 32:20

32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ¹  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ² 

Yesaya 2:18

2:18 The worthless idols will be completely eliminated. ³ 

Mikha 1:7

1:7 All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces;

all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. ⁴ 

I will make a waste heap ⁵  of all her images.

Since ⁶  she gathered the metal ⁷  as a prostitute collects her wages,

the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.” ⁸ 

¹ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

² tn Here “it” has been supplied.

sn Pouring the ashes into the water running from the mountain in the brook (Deut 9:21) and making them drink it was a type of the bitter water test that tested the wife suspected of unfaithfulness. Here the reaction of the people who drank would indicate guilt or not (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 419).

³ tc The verb “pass away” is singular in the Hebrew text, despite the plural subject (“worthless idols”) that precedes. The verb should be emended to a plural; the final vav (ו) has been accidentally omitted by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the immediately following form).

tn Heb “will completely pass away”; ASV “shall utterly pass away.”

⁴ tn Heb “and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire.”

sn The precious metal used by Samaria’s pagan worship centers to make idols are here compared to a prostitute’s wages because Samaria had been unfaithful to the Lord and prostituted herself to pagan gods, such as Baal.

⁵ tn Heb “I will make desolate” (so NASB).

⁶ tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NRSV).

⁷ tn No object is specified in the Hebrew text; the words “the metal” are supplied from the context.

⁸ tn Heb “for from a prostitute’s wages she gathered, and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.” When the metal was first collected it was comparable to the coins a prostitute would receive for her services. The metal was then formed into idols, but now the Lord’s fiery judgment would reduce the metal images to their original condition.