TERAPHIM (n,tin). This word is in- the A. V. always rendered either by teraphint,' or by images' with teraphim ' in the margin, except in Sam xv. 23 ; Zech. x. 2, where it is represented by iciolahy," idols.' The singular of the word does not occur, though in r Sam. xix. 13, 16, it appears that only one image is referred to. Pos sibly, as in the case of the Roman Penates (which word also has no singular), these representative images were always two or three in number. Strange to say, in the LXX. they are represented by a a'rferent rendering in nearly every book where the word occurs ; in Gen. xxxi. by etocona, in Judg. xvii. xviii. by trepaoty or To Oepackiv, in I Sam. xix. by Kevordclua, in Ezek. XXi. 21 by 7Atnrrd, in Hos. iii. 4 by oi3Xot, and in Zech. x. by arroo0e-y-Auevot. In the Vulg. we find nearly the same variations between theraphim, statua, idola, simulacra, figura idolomm,idalolatria. In the Tar ,zams the word is rendered by images,' and in Hos. iii. 4 by '11110, announcers ;' Aquila used izopOdwara and 1. c. OcerLai.toiis ; Symmachus frouAa.
The references to teraphim in the Bible open so curious a question, and are of such high import ance to elucidate the mental growth and history of the Jews, that we must pass them briefly in review ; a process by which we are far more likely to arrive at a reasonable conclusion than if we re corded the vagrant guesses and baseless theories of learned commentators, at the least extravagant of which we shall merely glance.
1. Teraphim are first mentioned in Gen. 3°0d. t9, where we are told that Rachel stole the tera phim of her father Laban, and successfully con cealed them from his search under the hiran or coarse carpet which is used to cover the wicker work pack-saddle of the camel. Aben Ezra says that she stole them in order that her father might not by means of their oracles discover the direc tion* of Jacob's flight ; Josephus says that she carried off these rOrous ram Beclit) that they might serve as a material protection to her if overtaken, although she herself disbelieved in them (KarceOpovciv /hip T7')S' TOLCLeiTig TLAS T(711, OcCiv 5c5dEavros atirip 7°0 Iniatif3ou, Joseph. Antiq. 19. 8) ; and lastly, some suppose that she was tempted by the precious metals of which they were made. It is far more probable that, like her father, Rachel, whose mind was evidently tainted with superstition (Gen. xxx. 14), regarded the teraphim as tutelary gods' (xxxi. 3o). Laban's eagerness to recover them shows the importance in which they were held, and it is important to observe that, although a be liever in Elohim (xxxi. 53), he openly paid to these teraphim, which were probably ancestral divinities of his family (xxxi. 53), an idolatrous worship.
Jurieu (Hist. a'es Dogines et des Culles, ii. 3, p. 456), after elaborately entering into the question, thinks that they may have been images of Shem and Noah.
2. It is extremely probable that these household deities were among the strange gods' and talis manic earrings which Jacob required his family to give up, and which were buried by him under the boughs of Allan-Ilfeonenim the sorcerer's oak' (Judg. ix. 37). But an isolated act would naturally be ineffectual to abolish a cult which had probably existed for centuries in the Aramman home of the Semites, and consequently in the thne of the Judges we find the worship of teraphim existing in full vigour. The r7th and 18th chapters of Judges are entirely occupied with the story of Micah, an Ephraimite, who in those wild and ignorant times had fancied that he could honour Jehovah (xvii. r3) by establishing a worship in his own house. To the ephod and teraphint which he already possessed (ver. 5) his mother added a Pesel and Massekah (pass/U..), 'a graven and a molten ima,,,,e') made out of the gold which she had consecrated to Jehovah, and which he had stolen. When Jonathan, the grandson of Moses,t arrived at the house in his accidental wanderings, Micah engaged him as a regular priest, and a.nticipated in consequence the special blessing of Jehovah. The five Danite spies consulted these oracular Penates of Micah through the interventiodof Jonatha.n (xviii. 5), and informed the Danites on their way to Laish of the images which the house contained. The Danite warriors, with the most unscrupulous indifference, violently carried off the whole apparatus of this private cult, including the priest himself, to their new city ; and we are informed that it continued to be celebrated till the day of the captivity of the land,' which, as we see from the next verse, mayprhaps* mean till the capture of Shiloh by the Philistines. What is most remarkable in this narrative is the fact that both Micah, who was a worshipper of Jehovah, and the Danites, who acknowledged Elohim (xviii. 5, to), and Jonathan, the grandson of Moses him self, should, in spite of the distinctest prohibitions of the law, have regarded the adoration of tera phim and other images as harmless, if not as laud. able ; and that this form of idolatry, without any political motive to palliate it as in the case of Jero boam, should have been adopted and maintained without surprise or hesitation, nay even with eager enthusiasm, by an entire tribe of Israel.