Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 17:5

"And the man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest." — Judges 17:5 (ASV)

EXCURSUS II — ON Judges 17:5 (TERAPHIM)

The Hebrew word Teraphim is always simply transliterated as in this version, or rendered as “images,” with “teraphim” in the margin, except in 1 Samuel 15:23 and Zechariah 10:2, where it is represented by “idolatry” or “idols.” The singular of the word, “a teraph,” does not occur in Scripture, although it is clear that only one can have been put into David’s bed (1 Samuel 19:13–16). The Septuagint adopts many different renderings, as does the Vulgate, but they all point to idolatrous images or the implements of necromancy, as do the two renderings of the Targums: “images,” and “announcers.”

1. Teraphim are first mentioned in Genesis 31:19, where Rachel steals her father’s “images” and successfully hides them from his search under the hiran on which she was sitting—the coarse carpet used to cover the wicker-work pack-saddle of her camel. Josephus supposes that she was motivated by idolatrous reverence; Ibn Ezra, that she expected oracular guidance from them; others, that she stole them because of their intrinsic value.

   She probably shared the superstitions of her father and regarded them as sacred (Genesis 30:14; Genesis 31:30), as being the figures of ancestral divinities (Genesis 31:53). It is not impossible that they were among the “strange gods” which Jacob ordered his family to bury under “the sorcerer’s oak”—Allon Meonenim (Judges 9:37). But that Jacob’s proper conviction in the matter was not permanent is demonstrated only too clearly by the conduct of Micah (Judges 17:5) and the Danites (Judges 18:3), although, unlike Jeroboam, they could not even plead the poor excuse of political motives.

2. The next definite mention of teraphim occurs in 1 Samuel 19:13–16, where Michal, in the dark eastern chamber, conceals her husband’s absence by putting the teraphim in his bed, with a bolster of goat’s hair for a pillow. The use of the article shows that even in David’s family the use of “the teraphim” was perfectly well known. Nor can we rely on the vague conjecture of Thenius, that barren women (Rachel and Michal) were especially inclined to their worship, or on that of Michaelis, that Michal may have possessed them without David’s knowledge.

   The passage seems to show that they had at least some rude resemblance to the human shape, from which Aquila renders the word as “protomai” (“busts”), which is used for figures like the ancient Hermae. This is not the place to enter into the curious reading of the Septuagint on this verse, by which they seem to connect the worship of teraphim with what the ancients called extispicium—that is, divination by means of the liver of sacrifices, as in Ezekiel 21:21. Josephus follows the same reading and dishonestly suppresses all mention of the teraphim.

3. The next important passage is Hosea 3:4, where the primâ facie view of every unbiased reader would be that the “image” (matsêbah) and the teraphim are mentioned without blame as ordinary adjuncts to religious worship. Hence, perhaps, arose the notion that the teraphim were in some way connected with the Urim and Thummim, which led to the rendering of the word in this passage by δήλοι (Septuagint, “bright gems”), by φωτισμούς (“enlightenments,” Aquila), and by “implements of priestly dress” (St. Jerome). This is the theory maintained most unconvincingly, though with great learning, by Spencer in his De Legibus Hebrœorum, lib. 3, pp. 920-1038.

But if these passages show that even in religious families teraphim were sometimes tolerated as material adjuncts to an Elohistic worship, on the other hand, we find them unequivocally condemned by Samuel (1 Samuel 15:23), by Josiah (2 Kings 23:24), and by the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 10:2); and in Ezekiel 21:21, their use is attributed to the heathen Nebuchadnezzar.

The general inference seems to be that the use of the teraphim involved a violation of the second commandment, but that this use of symbols, this monotheistic idolatry, which is very different from polytheism, arises from a tendency very deeply ingrained in human nature, and which it took many years to eradicate. If centuries elapsed before the Jews were cured of their propensity to worship “other gods,” we can feel no surprise that “image worship” continued to linger among them, in spite of the condemnation of it by the stricter prophets.

The calf-worship, the toleration of teraphim and consecrated stones (baetylia) and high places, the offering of incense to the brazen serpent, the glimpses of grave irregularities even in the worship of the sanctuary, show that it was only by centuries of misfortune and a succession of prophets that Israel was at last educated into the spiritual worship of the true God.

The reader will find further remarks on this subject in the article on “Teraphim,” by the present writer, in Kitto’s Biblical Cyclopædia.

Had a house of gods. —The Hebrew is Beth Elohim, which may mean equally well “a house of God” (Vulgate, œdiculam Deo, and so too the Septuagint). It is quite clear that Micah did not abandon the worship of God under the names of Jehovah and Elohim, by which He was known to the Israelites. How he coordinated this worship with his grossly idolatrous symbols, or whom those symbols were intended to represent, it is impossible to say. The fact remains that in the Beth-Micah we find “a house of gods”—“whole chapel of idols”—consecrated to Jehovah as a pious act (Judges 17:2; Judges 17:5; Judges 17:13; Judges 18:6).

An ephod. —No doubt the ephod was nothing more than a gorgeous priestly garment, though possibly it may have been used for oracular purposes. (See Judges 8:27.)

And teraphim. —These were Syrian images (Genesis 31:19), the use of which among the Israelites seems to have lasted for a long period, until it was put down by King Josiah in his great reformation (2 Kings 23:34; Ezekiel 21:26; Hosea 3:4; Zechariah 10:2). I have entered upon the interesting question of the use of Teraphim in an article on the subject in Kitto’s Cyclopœdia. (See Excursus II: Teraphim.)

Consecrated. —The curious Hebrew phrase is “filled the hand” (Exodus 29:24; Leviticus 7:37), i.e., gave him the office by putting certain offerings in his hands. It is rather installed than “consecrated.”