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 which I said to you ye shall watch; and ye shall not call to mind the name of other gods; it shall not be heard above thy mouth.
And the man Micah to him a house of gods; and he will make an ephod and a teraphim, and he will fill the hand of one of his sons, and he will be to him for priest
Their images are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. A mouth to them, and they shall not speak: eyes to them, and they will not see: read more. Ears to them, and they shall not hear: a nose to them, and they shall not smell: Their hands, and they will not feel: their feet, and they shall not go: they shall not murmur in their throat They making them shall be as they; all that trusted in them.
And the artificer will strengthen the founder, he making smooth with the hammer, he beating the anvil, saying, It is good for the welding; he will strengthen it with nails; it shall not totter.
The workman of woods stretched out the line; he will delineate it with an awl, he will do it with chisels, and he will delineate it with a compass, and he will make it according to the image of a man, according to the beauty of man; to dwell in the house
And it was for a man to burn: and he will take from them and he will be warmed; also he will kindle, and bake bread; also he will make a god, and he will worship; he made it a carved image, and he will fall down to them.
They will lift him up upon the shoulder, they will carry him, they will set him down in his place and he will stand; from his place he shall not depart: also he will cry out to him and he will not answer; he will not save him from his straits
And ye forsaking Jehovah, forgetting my holy mountain, and preparing a table for Gad, and filling up for fate from mixed wine.
The sons are gathering up woods, and the fathers kindling the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of the heavens, and to pour out libations to other gods, to irritate me.
With gold and with silver they will beautify; with nails and with hammers they will make firm and it will not move. They are of turned work, as the palm tree, and they shall not speak; being lifted up they shall be lifted up, for they shall not mount up. Ye shall not be afraid of them, for they will not do evil, and also doing good is not with them.
Silver beaten out shall be brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and the hands of the founder: cerulean purple and red purple their clothing: they all are the work of the wise.
And thou wilt take all thy ornaments from my gold and from my silver, which I gave to thee, and thou wilt make to thee images of a male and commit fornication with them. And thou wilt take thy garments of variegations and cover them: and thou gavest mine oil and mine incense before them.
Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold; its height sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits: he set it up in the valley of Dura, in the province of Babel.
They made kings, and not from me: and they made princes, and I knew not: their silver and their gold they made to them images to cut off.
And now they will add to sin, and they will make to them a molten image of their silver, in their understanding images the work of artificers all of it: they saying to them, The men sacrificing shall kiss the calves.