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 to you be circumspect: and make no mention of the names of other gods, neither let it be heard from thy mouth.
And the man Micah had a house of gods, 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 speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: read more. They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.
Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take of it, and warm himself; indeed he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yes, he maketh a god, and worshipeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down to it.
They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yes, one shall cry to him, yet he cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink-offering to that number.
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it may not move. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skillful men.
Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and hast made to thyself images of men, and hast committed lewdness with them. And hast taken thy broidered garments, and covered them: and thou hast set my oil and my incense before them.
Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose hight was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made for themselves idols, that they may be cut off.
And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of artificers: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.