Teraphim

Biblical Texts

"Teraphim" is a transliteration of the Hebrew teraphim. The New Korean Revised Version usually transliterates the term, but in a few places, such as the account of Michal in 1 Samuel 19, it translates it as "idol."

• Rachel's teraphim (Genesis 31): When Rachel left Haran with Jacob, she secretly took her father Laban's teraphim. Laban pursued them, calling the objects "my gods." Rachel hid the teraphim under the camel's saddle and sat on them, so Laban could not find them. Later, before going up to Bethel, Jacob had his household put away the "strange gods" (Genesis 35:2-4), though the text does not say whether the teraphim were among them.
• The house of Micah (Judges 17–18): Micah, a man of Ephraim, kept a shrine in his house and made an ephod and teraphim. The tribe of Dan later carried them off.
• Michal's ruse (1 Samuel 19:13-16): When Saul's men came to seize David, Michal laid the teraphim in the bed, fashioned a head of goats' hair, and covered it with clothing to make it appear that David lay sick.
• Texts of condemnation: Samuel told Saul that rebellion and stubbornness are like the sin of divination and the sin of serving teraphim (1 Samuel 15:23). Josiah removed the teraphim during his reforms (2 Kings 23:24). Other passages record that the king of Babylon consulted teraphim in divination (Ezekiel 21:21) and that the teraphim speak vanity (Zechariah 10:2), and there is a prophecy that Israel would abide "without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hosea 3:4).

Background

Teraphim are commonly understood to have been household gods or ancestral figurines used in homes in the ancient Near East. The passages in Ezekiel and Zechariah show that teraphim were used for divination. Their size appears to have varied: Rachel could hide them beneath a saddle, while Michal could make one look like a person. The etymology of the word is uncertain, and scholars differ on it.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Teraphim represent a form of image worship forbidden by the second commandment. They are treated as an example of how faith in God and folk religion were intermingled within Israel. The word does not appear in the New Testament, but exhortations to keep away from idols (1 John 5:21, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6) carry forward the same concern.

Interpretation and Debated Issues

• Why Rachel took the teraphim: The text gives no reason, and various interpretations have arisen. A Jewish traditional interpretation holds that she wanted to keep her father from using the teraphim to divine their whereabouts; another view is that Rachel herself was attached to the idols. In the mid-twentieth century, a theory based on the ancient Nuzi texts, linking teraphim with rights of inheritance, was widely publicized, but many objections have since been raised against it.
• Teraphim in David's house: The text offers no evaluation of this. Some interpreters see it as evidence of the folk religion mixed into the life of the time, while others see it as revealing the state of Michal's personal faith.
• Hosea 3:4: This verse places teraphim alongside the ephod, sacrifice, and the sacred pillar. Many interpreters read it as describing a situation in which both legitimate and illegitimate worship have ceased.

In the Korean Church

In preaching, the scene in which Rachel keeps the teraphim hidden to the end is sometimes used as an illustration of the idols that believers fail to give up and keep concealed in their hearts.