Thematic Bible: Teraphim


Thematic Bible



So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. Let us go up at once to Bethel. Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went." So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem

Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord. I cannot stand up in your presence because I am having my period." So he searched thoroughly, but did not find the idols. Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. "What did I do wrong?" he demanded of Laban. "What sin of mine prompted you to chase after me in hot pursuit? When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? Set it here before my relatives and yours, and let them settle the dispute between the two of us! read more.
"I have been with you for the past twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself. You always made me pay for every missing animal, whether it was taken by day or at night.

Now this man Micah owned a shrine. He made an ephod and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest. Verse ConceptsephodsPriests, Institution In Ot TimesShrinesConsecration

The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their kinsmen, "Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do." Verse ConceptsFive People

The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men. When these men broke into Micah's house and stole the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, the priest said to them, "What are you doing?" They said to him, "Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser and priest. Wouldn't it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man's family?" read more.
The priest was happy. He took the ephod, the personal idols, and the carved image and joined the group.

While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father. Verse ConceptsCriminalsHousehold GodsSheepStealingSuffering, Causes OfSheep ShearingRobbing Gods

Now I understand that you have gone away because you longed desperately for your father's house. Yet why did you steal my gods?" "I left secretly because I was afraid!" Jacob replied to Laban. "I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force. Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! In the presence of our relatives identify whatever is yours and take it." (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.) read more.
So Laban entered Jacob's tent, and Leah's tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. Then he left Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. (Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel's saddle and sat on them.) Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them. Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord. I cannot stand up in your presence because I am having my period." So he searched thoroughly, but did not find the idols.

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