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teraphim

teraphim

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Teraphim  \Ter"a*phim\,  n.  pl  [Heb.  ter[=a]ph[=i]m.] 
  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.  --Dr.  W.  Smith  (Bib.  Dict.). 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Teraphim 
  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  Sam.  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  Hos.  3:4.  It  has  been 
  supposed  by  some  (Cheyne's  Hosea)  that  the  ephod"  here 
  mentioned,  and  also  in  Judg.  8:24-27,  was  not  the  part  of  the 
  sacerdotal  dress  so  called  (Ex.  28:6-14),  but  an  image  of 
  Jehovah  overlaid  with  gold  or  silver  (comp.  Judg.  17,  18;  1  Sam. 
  21:9;  23:6,  9;  30:7,  8),  and  is  thus  associated  with  the 
  teraphim.  (See  {THUMMIM}.) 
 
 
  From  Hitchcock's  Bible  Names  Dictionary  (late  1800's)  [hitchcock]: 
 
  Teraphim,  images;  idols