Reference: Images
Hastings
1. The making of an image implies a definite conception and the application of art to religion. The earliest Semitic religion (like that of Greece, Rome, etc.) was accordingly imageless. The first images were the stone pillar and the wooden pole or asherah (a tree fetish possibly of phallic significance). Then came real idols, at first for domestic use (as probably the teraphim, portable household gods), and subsequently those of greater size for public worship.
2. About 15 words in OT are used specifically for images. The earliest point to the process of manufacture
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And in all things that I have said unto you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.
And the man Micah had a brothel of idolatry, , and made an ephod and teraphim and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they shall never speak; they have eyes, but they shall never see: read more. They have ears, but they shall never hear; they have noses, but they shall never smell; they have hands, but they shall never touch; they have feet, but they shall never walk; they shall never speak through their throat. Let those that make them become like unto them, and every one that trusts in them.
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smooths with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is well joined and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
The carpenter stretches out his rule; he measures it with a line; he fits it with planes; he marks it out with the compass; he makes it after the form of a noble man, in the likeness of the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.
The man shall then use of it for firewood; for he will take thereof and warm himself; he will kindle it and bake bread; he will also make a god and worship it; he will fabricate an idol and shall kneel down before it.
They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him and set him in his place. There he is; he does not move from his place; they cry unto him, and neither does he answer, nor save from the tribulation.
But ye that forsake the LORD, that forget the mountain of my holiness, that prepare a table unto fortune, and that furnish the drink offering for destiny;
The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger.
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails, that it not move. They compare them to the palm tree, and they do not speak: they must be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither do they have power to do good.
Silver spread into plates shall be brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, shall the workman work and the hands of the founder: they shall dress them in blue and purple: they are all the work of cunning men.
Thou hast taken likewise the vessels of thy beauty of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee and made to thyself images of men and didst commit whoredom with them And thou didst take thy garments of many colours and cover them; and thou hast set my oil and my incense before them.
Nebuchadnezzar the king made a statue of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
They have reigned, but not by me; they have made dominion, and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols that they may be cut off.
And now they sin more and more, and of their silver they have made molten images according to their own intelligence, idols, all of it the work of the craftsmen; they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.