Teraphim

There are three extended passages involving teraphim: during Rachel and Jacob's escape from Laban; with Michal's haphazard assistance of David fleeing Saul; and as the object of desire in the narrative of Micah's Idol.

According to Genesis 31, when her husband Jacob escapes, Rachel takes the teraphim belonging to her father Laban and hides them on a camel's saddle.

[8] See Micah's Idol Hosea 3:4 says that "the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or teraphim."

Zechariah 10:2 states, For the oracle idols spoke delusion, The augurs predicted falsely; And dreamers speak lies And console with illusions.

[9]In Ezekiel 21:21, Nebuchadrezzar uses various forms of divination to determine whether to attack Rabbah or the Kingdom of Judah first: "he shakes the arrows, he consults the images [teraphim], he looks at the liver."

Josephus mentions that there was a custom of carrying "housegods" on journeys to foreign lands,[11] and it is thus possible that the use of teraphim continued in popular culture well into the Hellenistic period and even beyond.

[12] During the excavation of Jericho by Kathleen Kenyon, evidence of the use of plastered human skulls as cult objects was uncovered, lending credence to the rabbinical conjecture.

[attribution needed] Benno Landsberger and later, in 1968, Harry Hoffner advocated derivation from the Hittite tarpiš, 'the evil daemon'.

[18] Shiki-y-Michaels,[19] in one element of an ambitious presentation, recaps some scholars' guesses: Speiser gives רפה (r-p-h), 'to be limp', also 'to sink, relax'; Albright suggests רפי (r-p-y), with the sense of 'slacken or sag'; and Pope argues רפפ (r-p-p), 'tremble'.