'Idol' in the Bible

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

“When you become the father of children and children’s children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger,

‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

‘Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.

When the messengers entered, behold, the household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head.

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.

Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.

Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;

He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.

As for the idol, a craftsman casts it,A goldsmith plates it with gold,And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

He who is too impoverished for such an offeringSelects a tree that does not rot;He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsmanTo prepare an idol that will not totter.

Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit?

“Gather yourselves and come;Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;They have no knowledge,Who carry about their wooden idolAnd pray to a god who cannot save.

Therefore I declared them to you long ago,Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’

“But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man;He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog’s neck;He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood;He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol.As they have chosen their own ways,And their soul delights in their abominations,

But they are altogether stupid and foolishIn their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood!

He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol of jealousy at the entrance.

My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them;For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray,And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.

The Lord has issued a command concerning you:“Your name will no longer be perpetuated.I will cut off idol and imageFrom the house of your gods.I will prepare your grave,For you are contemptible.”

“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,Or an image, a teacher of falsehood?For its maker trusts in his own handiworkWhen he fashions speechless idols.

At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.

However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?