TERAPHIM (ter'a-phim), Heb. ter-aw The word tcraphim signified an object or objects of idolatry, as we may learn from the ren derings of the Septuagint. It seems therefore that teraphim were tutelar household gods, by whom families expected, for worship bestowed, to be rewarded with domestic prosperity, such as plenty of food, health, and various necessaries of domestic life.
We have most remarkable proofs that the wor ship of teraphim coexisted with the worship of Jehovah, even in pious families ; and we have more than one instance of the wives of worshipers of Jehovah not finding full contentment and satis faction in the stern moral truth of spiritual wor ship, and therefore carrying on some private symbolism by fondling the teraphim.
We find in Gen. xxxi :19, 3o, 32-35, that Rachel stole the images (teraphim) belonging to her father without the knowledge of her husband, who, being accused by his father-in-law of having stolen his gods, answered, 'With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live.' Laban
searched, but found not the images (teraphim).
It appears from Judg. xvii :2-7, that the wor ship of the Lord was blended with that of a graven image or teraphim, but on revival of the knowledge of the written revelation of God the teraphim were swept away together with the worse forms of idolatry (2 Kings xxiii :24).
The teraphim were consulted by persons upon whom true religion had no firm hold, in order to elicit some supernatural omina, similar to the auguria of the Romans (Zech. x :2 ; Ezek. xxi : 21, 26).
The prophet Hosea (iii :4, 5),threatening Israel. says, "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 :" that is, during their captivity they shall be deprived of the public exercise of their religion, and even weaned from their private superstition.