Teraphim are generally supposed to have been
household deities (cf. Gn 31'», 1 S W- ", but see Ezk 21-'). Hence it has for long been the habit to compare the reverence paid to them with that which was otlered to the Lares and Penates in Roman times. Further, almost every passage in which the word occurs in OT shows that their use was bound up with the practices of magic and soothsaying (cf. especially Ezk 2P'). The above passage in Samuel makes it also certain that the figures sometimes represented the human form. It is unknown whether these were always full life- size. Tims, on the one hand, the fact that Michal could deceive the messengers from her father by leading them to believe that the muffled teraphim which she bad laid on the bed was the figure of her husband, makes it probable that some were so. And, on the other hand, the fact that Rachel (Gn 31**) could hide those which she had stolen from Laban beneath her in the camel-litter, while her father searched the baggage for his lost pro- perty, is sufficient to prove that others were con- siderably smaller. Again, there is nothing in the incident with Michal to show conclusively whether such a figure represented the entire human form, or whether it was simply a head or at most a bust. Thus the suggestion of some among the Jewish commentators (see Moore, Comm. on Judges, p. 382) is not devoid of probability, viz. that the teraphim, at least in the early period, were mummied human heads, for which the refinement of later centuries substituted more or less rude representations in wood or in the precious metals. One might then bring their use (of which among the Hebrews we hear very little) into comparison with the customs of divination by means of such heads among the Hauranians (cf. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier u. der Ssabismus, ii. pp. 19 ft'., 150 ft".). With great likeli- hood then do Stade {GVI i. p. 467) and Nowack (Heb. Archdol. ii. 23) consider that the teraphim came to represent the figures of ancestors, and make the consulting of them a kind of Manes oracle. This would further make it easy to understand how their use was common to the Israelites and the Aramaeans (cf. Gn 35^- *), and how Nebuchad- nezzar is represented as resorting to this method of divination (Ezk 21*'). And it would ser\'e to explain, since they were used for oracular pur- poses, why in 2 K 23" they are set alongside ' those who consult familiar spirits 'and 'wizards.' The reverence paid them as household deities, and the fact that their use was common to all the nations of the region, make it more natural that, though the teraphim were abolished by Josiah, they re- appear during the years of the Exile (Zee 10^). And if we recognize that they were used for such oracular purposes, and were not honoured with supreme worship, we can find it easier to under- stand how men who sincerely worshipped 3" might not note the inconsistency of their pres- ence in their homes. See, further, art. Sooth- saying.
It may be added that in Hos 3* and Jg 17* teraphim are mentioned along with the ephod, as though they were in some way connected with that. It was an old suggestion by Spencer (De legibus Hebr. ritualibus, 1. lii. diss. 7, sec. 2), that the Urini were of the same nature as, and even- tually took the place of, the teraphim. The LXX at tlos 3* reads 5^Xo for o-j-in, and this may imply that the translator found in the Heb. text c-nK. A. C. Welch.
TEREBINTH does not occnr at all in AV, and only thrice in RV, being substituted in Is 6'* for ' teil tree,' in Hos 4'* for ' elm,' and in Sir 24" for ' turpentine tree.' Strong reasons, however, can be urged (see the very full discussion in Ges. Thes. s.v.) for rendering by 'terebinth' when
TERLBINTH
TERTULLUS
719
ever the Heb. is '>')< [only in constr. Vn and plur. C'^'k] or i^N or pSx, and for reserving the tr. ' oak ' (by whicli these words are commonly rendered in AV and liV)* for j'lVx [in Jos 24-" .!;•», unless, as is probable, we should read here .i^n]. See esp. Del. and Dillm. on Gn 12", cf. Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.vv., and note that in IIos 4" and Is 6" a^K and p^N are clearly distinct. The references to the terebinth in Scripture would thus be the following : t —
(1) ''•N: Is I^ 'They shall be ashamed of the terebinths which ye have desired,' 57° ' ye that inflame yourselves anion" the terebinths,' 61' ' that they might be called terebinths J [prob. the figure is derived from the strength and durability of this tree] of righteousness,' Ezk 31'* ' nor lluit their terebinths § [perh. fig. of pride] stand up in their might.' Elim, the second station of Israel after pa.ssing the lied Sea (£.1 15" 16', Nu SS'-'- '"), may have derived its name originally from the presence of terebinths, although latterly associ- ated more with palms.
(2) .i^N : Gn 35'' ' the terebinth which was by Shechem,' Jos 24-" [reading n^x for n^N] ' the tere- binth that was in the sanctuary of the LORD,' Jg 6"-'» 'the terebinth which was in Ophrah,' 2S 18'- '"• '* tlie terebinth in which Absalom was en- tangled, 1 K 13'* the terebinth under which the ' man of God ' sat, 1 Ch 10" the terebinth in Jabesh under which the ashes of Saul and his sons were buried [this tree is called in 1 S 31" a tama- risk ||], IIos 4" (]||'i<'Nand njn^) 'they bum incense . . . under oaks and poplars and terebinths,' Kzk 6" ' their idols . . . under every thick terebinth,' Is l*" Judah is to be 'as a terebinth tliatwithereth,' 6" (II pVx) ' as a terebinth and as an oak whose stock remaineth when they are felled.' This tree gives its name to the Vale of Klah (rhnn p-y) 1 S 17'''- " 21»('»i, and to Elah Gn 36" ( = El-paran Gn 14", Elath Dt 2», 2 K W^ 1G», and Eloth 1 K 9=", 2 K 16").