Bible Dictionary: Teraphim

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Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

Teraphim

images; idols

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Teraphim

This word occurs only in the plural, and denotes images connected with magical rites. The derivation of the name is obscure. In one case -- (1 Samuel 19:13,16) --a single statue seems to be intended by the plural. The teraphim, translated "images" in the Authorized Version, carried away from Laban by Rachel were regarded by Laban as gods, and it would therefore appear that they were used by those who added corrupt practices to the patriarchal religion. Teraphim again are included among Micah's images. (Judges 17:3-5; 18:17,18,20) Teraphim were consulted for oracular answers by the Israelites, (Zechariah 10:2) comp. Judg 18:5,6; 1Sam 15:22,23; 19:13,16, LXX., and 2Kin 23:24 And by the Babylonians in the case of Nebuchadnezzar. (Ezekiel 21:19-22)

ATS Bible Dictionary

Teraphim

Small idols or superstitious figures, from the possession, adoration, and consultation of which extraordinary benefits were expected. See margin 2Ki 23...24; Ezekiel 21...21. The Eastern people are still much addicted to this superstition of talismans. The ancient teraphim appear to have been household gods, and their worship was sometimes blended with that of Jehovah, Jud 17:1-13.

They seem in one case to have resembled the human form in shape and size, 1 Samuel 19:13,16. The images of Rachel, Genesis 31:19,30, were teraphim. So Jud 17:5 18:14, 20 Hosea 3:4.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Givers of prosperity, idols in human shape, large or small, analogous to the images of ancestors which were revered by the Romans. In order to deceive the guards sent by Saul to seize David, Michal his wife prepared one of the household teraphim, putting on it the goat's-hair cap worn by sleepers and invalids, and laid it in a bed, covering it with a mantle. She pointed it out to the soldiers, and alleged that David was confined to his bed by a sudden illness (1 Samuel 19:13-16). Thus she gained time for David's escape. It seems strange to read of teraphim, images of ancestors, preserved for superstitious purposes, being in the house of David. Probably they had been stealthily brought by Michal from her father's house. "Perhaps," says Bishop Wordsworth, "Saul, forsaken by God and possessed by the evil spirit, had resorted to teraphim (as he afterwards resorted to witchcraft); and God overruled evil for good, and made his very teraphim (by the hand of his own daughter) to be an instrument for David's escape.", Deane's David, p. 32. Josiah attempted to suppress this form of idolatry (2 Kings 23:24). The ephod and teraphim are mentioned together in Hosea 3:4. It has been supposed by some (Cheyne's Hosea) that the "ephod" here mentioned, and also in Judges 8:24-27, was not the part of the sacerdotal dress so called (Exodus 28:6-14), but an image of Jehovah overlaid with gold or silver (Comp. Judges 17, 18; 1 Samuel 21:9; 23:6, 9; 30:7, 8), and is thus associated with the teraphim. (see THUMMIM.)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

(n. pl.) Images connected with the magical rites used by those Israelites who added corrupt practices to the patriarchal religion. Teraphim were consulted by the Israelites for oracular answers.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

TERAPHIM

ter'-a-fim.

See ASTROLOGY; DIVINATION; IMAGES.

Topical Bible Verses

2 Kings 23:24
Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
Topicalbible.org

Judges 17:5
And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
Topicalbible.org

Ezekiel 21:21
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
Topicalbible.org

1 Samuel 19:13
And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
Topicalbible.org

Judges 18:17
And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
Topicalbible.org

Psalm 31:6
I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
Topicalbible.org

Hosea 3:4
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
Topicalbible.org

Strong's Hebrew

8655. teraphim -- (a kind of idol) perhaps household idol
... 8654, 8655. teraphim. 8656 . (a kind of idol) perhaps household idol.
Transliteration: teraphim Phonetic Spelling: (ter-aw-feme') Short Definition: idols. ...
/hebrew/8655.htm - 6k

Library

CHAPTER III.
... days the children of Israel shall sit without a king, and without a prince, and
without a sacrifice, and without a pillar, and without an Ephod and Teraphim.". ...
/.../hengstenberg/christology of the old testament/chapter iii.htm

Chapter xxxi
... Critics ascribe most of v.18 to P. 19-21. But Laban had gone to shear his sheep;
and Rachel stole the teraphim which belonged to her father. ...
/...//christianbookshelf.org/leupold/exposition of genesis volume 1/chapter xxxi.htm

Appendix xvi. On the Jewish views About Demons' and the Demonised ...
... (Comp. for examples Pes.110 b; Sot.22 a; Gitt.45 a; Sanh.67 b). A very
peculiar idea is that about the Teraphim of Scripture. It ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/appendix xvi on the jewish.htm

Samuel
... In one document, eg, teraphim are found in the house of a devout worshipper of Jehovah,
1 Samuel 19:13, in another they are the symbol of an idolatry which is ...
//christianbookshelf.org/mcfadyen/introduction to the old testament/samuel.htm

The King --Continued.
... resented her violent separation from the household joys that had grown up about
her in her second home; probably the woman who had had teraphim among her ...
//christianbookshelf.org/maclaren/the life of david/xi the kingcontinued.htm

Ezekiel's Discourse
... Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination:
he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked ...
/.../various/select masterpieces of biblical literature/vi ezekiels discourse.htm

Chapter xxxv
... It now appears that Rachel's purpose in stealing her father's teraphim (Genesis
31:19) may well have been at least occasionally to engage in the worship of them ...
/...//christianbookshelf.org/leupold/exposition of genesis volume 1/chapter xxxv.htm

Letter xxix. To Marcella.
... To Marcella. An explanation of the Hebrew words Ephod bad (1 Samuel 2:18) and Teraphim
(Judges 17:5). Written at Rome to Marcella, also at Rome ad384. ...
/.../jerome/the principal works of st jerome/letter xxix to marcella.htm

Laban had Two Daughters, Leah and Rachel; but Leah had Tender Eyes ...
... Jacob's thigh shrank. Footnotes: [262] eidola is the Septuagint rendering
of the Hebrew word Teraphim. Perhaps the original word ...
/.../severus/life and writings of sulpitius severus /chapter ix laban had two.htm

The Exile.
... Her ready wit dresses up one of those mysterious teraphim (which appear to have
had some connection with idolatry or magic, and which are strange pieces of ...
//christianbookshelf.org/maclaren/the life of david/iv the exile.htm

Thesaurus

Teraphim (14 Occurrences)
... In order to deceive the guards sent by Saul to seize David, Michal his wife prepared
one of the household teraphim, putting on it the goat's-hair cap worn by ...
/t/teraphim.htm - 13k

Carved (36 Occurrences)
... men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers,
"Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an ...
/c/carved.htm - 17k

Graven (61 Occurrences)
... the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren,
Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a ...
/g/graven.htm - 27k

Engraved (62 Occurrences)
... men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers,
"Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an ...
/e/engraved.htm - 26k

Idol (56 Occurrences)
... Judges 17:3, 4). (18.) Teraphim, pl., "images," family gods (penates)
worshipped by Abram's kindred (Joshua 24:14). Put by Michal ...
/i/idol.htm - 29k

Idols (186 Occurrences)
... lies. (WEY). Genesis 31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel
stole the teraphim that were her father's. (See NAS). ...
/i/idols.htm - 37k

Ephod (45 Occurrences)
... or itself wrapped in a protecting cloth (1 Samuel 21:9). (3) The ephod mentioned
in Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14; Hosea 3:4 is associated with teraphim and other ...
/e/ephod.htm - 27k

Rachel (42 Occurrences)
... She was the mother of Joseph (Genesis 30:22-24). Afterwards, on Jacob's departure
from Mesopotamia, she took with her her father's teraphim (31:34, 35). ...
/r/rachel.htm - 24k

Molten (41 Occurrences)
... men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers,
"Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an ...
/m/molten.htm - 22k

Liver (16 Occurrences)
... of divination. The first recorded instance of divination (qv) is that of
the teraphim of Laban. By the teraphim the LXX. and Josephus ...
/l/liver.htm - 16k

Bible Concordance

Teraphim (14 Occurrences)

Genesis 31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.
(WEB JPS ASV DBY YLT)

Genesis 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but didn't find them.
(WEB JPS ASV DBY YLT)

Genesis 31:35 She said to her father, "Don't let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me." He searched, but didn't find the teraphim.
(WEB JPS ASV DBY YLT)

Judges 17:5 The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

Judges 18:14 Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, "Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do."
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

Judges 18:17 The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

Judges 18:18 When these went into Micah's house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, "What are you doing?"
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

Judges 18:20 The priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king."
(WEB JPS ASV YLT)

1 Samuel 19:13 Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes.
(WEB JPS ASV YLT)

1 Samuel 19:16 When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head.
(WEB JPS ASV YLT)

Ezekiel 21:21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.
(WEB JPS ASV DBY YLT RSV)

Hosea 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
(KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

Zechariah 10:2 For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd.
(WEB JPS ASV DBY YLT NAS RSV)

Subtopics

Teraphim

Teraphim used by Laban, Stolen by Rachael

Teraphim used by Micah, Stolen by the Danites

Teraphim: Condemned and Disposed of by Jacob

Related Terms

Carved (36 Occurrences)

Graven (61 Occurrences)

Engraved (62 Occurrences)

Idol (56 Occurrences)

Idols (186 Occurrences)

Ephod (45 Occurrences)