teraphim

[ter-uh-fim]

plural noun

singular

teraph 

1. idols or images reverenced by the ancient Hebrews and kindred peoples, apparently as household gods.

Word History and Origins

Origin of teraphim¹

1350–1400; < Hebrew tərāphīm; replacing Middle English theraphym < Late Latin theraphim (Vulgate) < Greek theraphín (Septuagint) < Hebrew, as above

Example Sentences

The original shows that it was one of the class called “teraphim”—images which were kept and used by persons who in the main worshipped the one true God.

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But Michal, the daughter of Saul, David's wife, let him down from a window, and in his place she put the teraphim, i. e. the image of the deity, into the bed, covered it with a coverlet, laid the net of goat's hair on the face, and gave out that David was sick.

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There were teraphim in David’s house, and the worship of Yahweh under the image of a calf was the state religion of the kingdom of Ephraim.

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But the heathenism of the portion of the family living at or near Haran is clearly proved by the matter of the teraphim, which Rachel stole from her father Laban.

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With regard to the teraphim which Rachel took with her when Jacob fled from her father, there is not much that can be said.

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