3. The next very distinct notice of teraphim which we find is in Sam. xix. 13-16, where Miami, to give David more time to escape, de ceives the messengers of Saul by putting the tera phim' in his bed with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster.' The use of the article shows that the teraphim ' wa.s something perfectly well known (Thenius, ad loc.), and the fact that we thus find it (or them) in the house of a man so pious as David, entirely confirms our inference as to the prevalence of these images. The suggestions of Michaelis that Michal may have worshipped them unknown to David,t and that barren women were especially devoted to them, are wholly without foun dation. We may legitimately infer from the pas sage that they had some rude resemblance .to the human shape, being perhaps something like the Hermze ; hence Aquila in this place renders the word by rporoAtal. The LXX. rendering KCVO rdcbta very probably points to the belief that the teraphim were images of deceased ancestors (Kevo /*Jul rum '4-av AL170-614EYCL (715 Ti37r OS peva. Suid. via'. Bochart, Hieraz. I. lib. ii. c. 51) ; and the rendering of put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster' by /cal '7,-ccp raw ca-y(Dv METo 7rp5s. ireOakijs abra, she placed the goat's liver at his head, shows that they read -123, liver,' for mat _ .
tress.' Now, if this ancient reading were correct, it brings the passage into remarkable parallel with Ezek. xxi. 21, where Nebuchadnezzar is said to have decided his course by belomantia, together with consultation of teraphim and looking into the liver (extispicium). From a combination of the two passages, Mr. R. S. Poole (Smith's Dict. of Eible, art. Maoic') has ingeniously conjectured that Michal mayhave been divining by means of a sacrifice to the teraphim when Saul's messenger arrived, and that she put the yet palpitating liver on the bed, with the image, which in a small dark narrow recess might well enough pass for a human being. Josephus, with his usual want of honesty, omits all mention of the teraphim, and only says that she put the liver under the bed-clothes, hop ing that its motion would make the men more easily believe that David was* gasping ! (Antiy. vi. II. 4) 4. The next passage of importance about the teraphim is Hos. iii. 4, which is encompassed by difficulties. The prophet, purchasing Gomer to himself, bids her be chaste for many days, ` for the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a sacrifice, and without an image (matzebdh), and without an ephod, and without teraphim.' Here it would certainly be the primd facie impression of every unbiassed reader that the matzebah and the teraphim are mentioned without blame as ordinary parts of religious worship. With
out, however, entering into the question (which per haps cannot be decided), whether Hosea did, or did not, mean to commend or tolerate these material adjuncts to a monotheistic worship, it is certainly not surprising that the reverence paid to the teraphim should have continued in Israel side by side with that paid to the calves, which beyond all doubt were in tended to be mere elohistic symbols ; and this is the less surprising when we remember that one of these cherubic emblems was set up in the very city (Dan) to which the teraphim of Micah had been carried ; and probably indeed because of the exist ence there of the irregular worship established by Moses' grandson. But here again the LXX. ver sion is curious and perplexing ; for it uses the word HAN (sc. Woe, bright gems), a word which, like 57)X6mas it uses elsewhere of the Urim and Thummim ("Num. XxVii. 21 ; I Sam. xxviii. 6) ; and Aquila seems to have had the same notion in adopting the word Ocereop.ohs, and it is even coun tenanced by St. Jerome, who in this passage in cludes the teraphim among the instrumento sacer dotalis habitt2s.' This is one starting-point for the theory, supported with such a mass of splendid but unconvincing learning by Spencer (De Legg. .Hebr. fib. dissert. vii. pp. 920-1038), that the teraphim and urim were identical. He argues not only from this rendering oFiXot, but also (i.) from the frequent union of ephod with teraphim ; (ii.) from the supposition that urim means fires,' and that teraphim means the same, being, a mere Aramaic equivalent for seraphim, the burning ones • ' (iii.) from the constant use of teraphim for oracular purposes. He concludes therefore that they were small images, permitted as a kind of necessary concession to deeply-rooted idolatry, placed in the folds of the ephod, and believed to emit predictions of the divine will. How ill the theory accords with the data before us will be obvi ous at once.
5. On the other hand, if, in the above passages, we have convincing proof that the use of teraphim was common, if not universal, among the early Hebrews, there are other passages which show that it was condemned, and that strongly, by the stricter Jehovists. Thus in I Sam. xv. 23, we find teraphim classed by Samuel with iniquity and witchcraft ; and in Kings xxiii. 24 Josiah puts away the teraphim with wizards, idols, and other abominations ; in Ezra xxi. 21, the use of them' is attributed to the pagan Nebuchadnezzar ; and in Zech. x. 2 they are mentioned as sources of deceit. Yet this last passage also proves that so thoroughly were they a part of the national tradition that they continued in use even after the captivity.