מַסֵּכָה

Exodus 32:4 מַסֵּכָ֑ה molten metal

He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Here: "Of casting": a bull made of poured or cast metal, possibly as a metal covering over a core. Later laws use the same word for forbidden images (Exodus 34:17; Deuteronomy 27:15).

Exodus 32:8 מַסֵּכָ֑ה molten metal

How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

Here: From the verb 'to pour': an object made by pouring metal into a mould. 'A calf of cast metal'. The technical term for an idol, banned outright in 34:17 ('gods of cast metal you shall not make').

Exodus 34:17 מַסֵּכָ֖ה molten metal

You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.

Leviticus 19:4 מַסֵּכָ֔ה molten metal

Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the LORD your God.

Here: From the verb nasakh, 'to pour.' A massekah is a figure made by pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Gods of pouring' are cast-metal cult images. It is the same term used for the golden calf (Exod 32:4, 8).

Numbers 33:52 מַסֵּֽכֹתָם֙ molten metal their

you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

Here: From the verb 'to pour'. It means something made by pouring molten metal into a mould, like the 'molten calf' of Exodus 32:4. 'Images of their castings' means their cast-metal idols.

Deuteronomy 9:12 מַסֵּכָֽה׃ a molten image

And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

Deuteronomy 9:16 מַסֵּכָ֑ה molten metal

And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

Deuteronomy 27:15 וּמַסֵּכָ֜ה and a molten image

‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Here: From nāsak, 'to pour'. A figure made by pouring molten metal into a mould, or a metal overlay. This is the word used for the golden calf (Deut 9:12, 16).

Judges 17:3 וּמַסֵּכָ֔ה and a molten image

And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”

Here: From a verb meaning 'to pour'. It is something made from molten metal, the same word used for Aaron's golden calf (Exodus 32:4). The supplied gloss 'liquid' reflects the root; here it means a cast-metal image or casing.

Judges 17:4 וּמַסֵּכָ֔ה and a molten image

So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

Here: From a verb meaning 'to pour out': an image or overlay made of poured metal. The golden calf is called a 'calf of massekhah' (Exod 32:4). The pair 'pesel and massekhah' repeats almost word for word the curse in Deut 27:15.

Judges 18:14 וּמַסֵּכָ֑ה and a molten image

Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”

Judges 18:17 הַמַּסֵּכָ֑ה the molten image

And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men.

Judges 18:18 הַמַּסֵּכָ֑ה the molten image

When they entered Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

1 Kings 14:9 וּמַסֵּכוֹת֙ and molten images

You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.

Here: 'And cast images': figures made by pouring molten metal into a mold. This is the word used for Aaron's 'cast calf' (Exod 32:4, 8), so it ties Jeroboam's calves to the golden calf at Sinai.

2 Kings 17:16 מַסֵּכָ֖ה a molten image

They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.

Here: 'A casting': a figure made by pouring molten metal into a mould, or by laying metal over a core. It is the same word as in Aaron's 'calf of cast metal' (Exod 32:4), and that link is deliberate.

2 Chronicles 28:2 מַסֵּכ֛וֹת molten images

Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even made cast images of the Baals.

2 Chronicles 34:3 וְהַמַּסֵּכֽוֹת׃ and the molten images

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.

Here: Images made of poured, cast metal. Paired with 'carved images', the two words cover every kind of manufactured idol.

2 Chronicles 34:4 וְהַמַּסֵּכוֹת֙ and the molten images

Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

Nehemiah 9:18 מַסֵּכָ֔ה molten metal

Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

Psalm 106:19 לְמַסֵּכָֽה׃ to a molten image

At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

Isaiah 25:7 וְהַמַּסֵּכָ֥ה and the woven stuff

On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;

Here: A woven sheet or blanket. In Isaiah 28:20 the same word is a bed-covering 'too narrow to wrap oneself in.' Here it is a heavy cloth laid over the nations, not a thin decorative veil.

Isaiah 28:20 וְהַמַּסֵּכָ֥ה and the blanket

Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you.

Isaiah 30:1 מַסֵּכָ֖ה a libation

“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.

Here: The object that matches the verb: 'a pouring', meaning a treaty libation, or 'a weaving', meaning a web or covering. The same word often means a cast idol (Exodus 32:4), which may add a dark undertone.

Isaiah 30:22 מַסֵּכַ֣ת [the] molten image of

So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

Here: An image made by pouring molten metal into a mould (from nāsak, 'to pour'). 'Carved image and cast image' is a standard pair for idols of every kind (Deut 27:15; Judg 17:3–4).

Isaiah 42:17 לְמַסֵּכָ֖ה to a molten image

But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame.

Here: 'To a cast image,' from a verb meaning to pour, so an image made of molten metal poured into a mould. It is the word used for the golden calf (Exod 32:4, 8).

Hosea 13:2 מַסֵּכָ֨ה a molten image

Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”

Here: An image made by pouring molten metal, or by covering a core with metal. This is the exact word for the golden calf at Sinai, the "cast calf" ('egel massekah) of Exod 32:4, 8.

Nahum 1:14 וּמַסֵּכָ֛ה and molten image

The LORD has issued a command concerning you, O Nineveh: “There will be no descendants to carry on your name. I will cut off the carved image and cast idol from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.”

Habakkuk 2:18 מַסֵּכָ֖ה a molten image

What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

Here: An image cast from molten metal, or a wooden core covered in poured metal, from the root 'to pour'. It is the word used for the golden calf (Exod 32:4). Paired with pesel, it covers every kind of manufactured god, carved or cast.