IDOL
410
IDOL
says, " These images of the fire-god were placed on for- eign or non-Israelitish altars, in conjunction with the symbols of the nature-goddess Asherah, or (Tufifiwfioi {■2 Chron. xiv, 3, 5 ; xxxiv, 4, 7 ; Isa. xvii, 9 ; xxvii, 9), as was otherwise usual with Baal and Asherah." They are mentioned with the Asherira, and the latter are coupled with the statues of Baal (1 Kings xiv, 23 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 14). The chammanivi and statues are used promiscuously (compare 2 Kings xxiii, 14, and 2 Chron. xxxiv, 4 ; 2 Chron. xiv, 3 and 5), but are never spoken of together. Such are the steps by which he arrives at his conclusion. He is supported by the Palmyrene in- scription at Oxford, alluded to above, which has been thus rendered: "This column (X5"Dn, Chammdnd), and this altar, the sons of IMalchu, etc., have erected and dedicated to the sun." The Veneto- Greek Version leaves the word untranslated in the strange form ciicd- ftavT(Q. From the expressions in Ezek. vi, 4, 6, and Lev. xxvi, 30, it may be inferred that these columns, which perhaps represented a rising flame of fire and stood upon the altar of Baal (2 Chron. xxxiv, 4), were of wood or stone. See Asherah.
15. r"'3bT3, masMth', occurs in Lev. xxvi, 1 ; Numb. xxiii, 52 ; Ezek. viii, 12 : " device," most nearly suits all passages (compare Psa. Ixxiii, 7; Prov. xviii, 11; xxv, 11). This word has been the fruitful cause of as much dispute as the preceding. The general opinion appears to be that '"O "i^lJIi signifies a stone with figures graven upon it. Ben-Zeb explains it as " a stone with figures or hieroglyphics carved upon it," and so Michaelis ; and it is maintained by Movers {Phijn. i, 105) that the hce- tylia, or columns with painted figures, the " lapides efH- giati" of Minucius Felix (c. 3), are these "stones of de- vice," and that the characters engraven on them are the Upa aTOLXtia, or characters sacred to the several deities. The invention of these characters, which is ascribed to Taaut, he conjectures originated with the Seres. Gesenius explains it as a stone with the image of an idol, Baal or Astarte, and refers to his Mon. Phan. p. 21-24, for others of a similar character. Rashi (on Lev. xxi, 1) derives it from the root "-'"C, to cover, "because they cover the floor with a pavement of stones." The Targum and Syriac, Lev. xxvi, 1, give " stone of devotion," and the former, in Numb, xxxiii, 52, has " house of their devotion" where the Syriac only renders " their objects of devotion." For the former the Sept. has Xi9oQ okottoq, and for the latter rug (jKoiriac avTwv, connecting the word with the root i^^b. "to look," a circumstance Avhich has induced Saalschiitz {Mos. BecJit, p. 382-385) to conjecture that then inask-ith was originally a smooth elevated stone employed for the purpose of obtaining from it a freer prospect, and of offering prayer in prostration upon it to the deities of heaven. Hence, generally, he concludes it signifies a stone of prayer or devotion, and the "chambers of imagery" of Ezek. viii, 7 are " chambers of devotion." The renderings of the last mentioned passage in the Sept. and Targum are ciurious as pointing to a various reading, inSia"?, or, more probably, i33"j'2. See
I.MAGEItY.
16. C'^S'nri, ierdpMm'. See Teraphim.
(ii.) The terms which follow have regard to the ma- terial and worhmamhip of the idol rather than to its character as an object of worship.
17. bos, T^e'se/, usually translated in the Authorized Version '■ graven or carved image." In two passages it is ambiguously rendered "quarries" (Judg. iii, 19, 26), after the Targum, but there seems to be no reason for dc7)arting from the ordinary signification. In the ma- jority of instances the Sept. has yXvTrrov, once y\vi.tfia. The verb is employed to denote the finishing which the stone received at the hands of the masons after it had been rough-hewn from the quarries (Exod. xxxiv, 4 ; 1 Kings V, 32). It is probably a later usage which has
applied T^ese? to a figure cast in metal, as in Isa. xl, 19 j xUv, 10. (More probably still, pesel denotes by anticipa- tion the molten image in a later stage, after it had been trimmed into shape by the caster.) These " sculptured" images were apparently of wood, iron, or stone, covered with gold or silver (Deut. vii, 25 ; Isa. xxx, 22 ; Hab. ii, 19), the more costly being of solid metal (Isa. xl, 19). They could be burned (Dent, vii, 5; Isa. xiv, 20; 2 Chron. xxxiv, 4), or cut down (Deut. xii, 3) and pound- ed (2 Chron. xxxiv, 7), or broken in pieces (Isa. xxi, 9). In making them, the skill of the wise iron-smith (Deut. xxvii, 15; Isa. xl, 20) or carpenter, and of the gold- smith, was employed (Judg. xvii, 3, 4 ; Isa. xli, 7), the former supplying the rough mass of iron beaten into shape on his anvil (Isa. xliv, 12), while the latter over- laid it with plates of gold and silver, probably from Tarshish (Jer. x, 9), and decorated it with silvor chains. The image thus formed received the further adornment of embroidered robes (Ezek. xvi, 18), to which possibly allusion may be made in Isa. iii, 19. Brass and clay were among the materials employed for the same pur- pose (Dan. ii, 33; v, 23). (Images of glazed pottery liave been fomid in Egypt [Wilkinson, yl?zc. Eg. iii, 90; comp. Wisd. xv, 8].) A description of the three great images of Babylon on the top of the temple of Belus will be found in Diod. Sic. ii, 9 (compare Layard, Nin. ii, 433). The several stages of the process by which the metal or wood became the " graven image" arc so viv- idly described in Isa. xliv, 10-20, that it is only neces- sar}' to refer to that passage, and we are at once intro- duced to the mysteries of idol manufacture, which, as at Ephesus, " brought no small gain unto the craftsmen." See Shrink.