'Idols' in the Bible

"I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols; she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but she forgot me!" says the Lord.

For I will remove the names of the Baal idols from your lips, so that you will never again utter their names!"

The Lord said to me, "Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the Lord loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols."

For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols.

My people consult their wooden idols,and their divining rods inform them.For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray;they act promiscuouslyin disobedience to their God.

Though you, Israel, play the prostitute [by worshiping idols],Do not let Judah become guilty [of the same thing];And do not go to Gilgal [where idols are worshiped],Or go up to Beth-aven (House of Wickedness),Nor swear [oaths in idolatrous worship, saying],“As the Lord lives!”

Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;For now, O Ephraim, you have played the prostitute and have worshiped idols;Israel has defiled itself.

Ephraim is crushed, broken by judgment, because he willingly pursued idols.

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 them idols, that they may be cut off.

"Israel, the overgrown vine, bears fruit like itself; the more fruitful they become, the more altars they build. The better the land, the more ornate the stone idols.

Their hearts are divided; from now on they are to be found guilty. God will tear down their altars, he will destroy their stone idols.

When it is my desire [to defend My righteousness], I will chastise them;And [hostile] peoples will be gathered against themWhen they are bound and punished for their double guilt [their revolt against the Lord and their worship of idols].

The more they called them,the more they departed from Me.They kept sacrificing to the Baalsand burning offerings to idols.

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 the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

“Assyria will not save us;We will not ride on horses [relying on military might],Nor will we say again to [the idols who are] the work of our hands,‘You are our gods.’For in You [O Lord] the orphan finds love and compassion and mercy.”

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

“But do not resort to Bethel [to worship the golden calf]Nor enter [idolatrous] Gilgal,Nor cross over to Beersheba [and its idols];For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity and exile,And Bethel will come to nothing.

And you carried the tent of your king and Saturn, your star god idols that you crafted for yourselves.

Those who cling to worthless idolsforsake faithful love,

And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst; you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

I will uproot your images of Asherah from your midst, and destroy your idols.

The Lord has issued a decree against you: "Your dynasty will come to an end. I will destroy the idols and images in the temples of your gods. I will desecrate your grave -- because you are accursed!"

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

"Woe to the one who says to a tree, "Wake up!' or "Arise!' to a speechless stone. Idols like this can't teach, can they? Look, even though it is overlaid with gold and silver, there's no breath in it at all."

“I will consume and sweep away man and beast;I will consume and sweep away the birds of the airAnd the fish of the sea,And the stumbling blocks (idols) along with the wicked;And I will cut off and destroy man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was troubled within him when he saw that the city was full of idols.

As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

not that in this world you are to keep wholly aloof from such as they, any more than from people who are avaricious and greedy of gain, or from worshippers of idols. For that would mean that you would be compelled to go out of the world altogether.

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

But knowledge is not in all: but some, with conscience of the idol, until now eat as of a thing sacrificed to idols; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

Now food will not commend us to God nor bring us close to Him; we are no worse off if we do not eat, nor are we better if we do eat.

For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

And you must not be worshippers of idols, as some of them were. For it is written, "The People sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to dance."

Therefore, my dear friends, avoid all connection with the worship of idols.

What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?

[Regarding meat offered to idols:] Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking any questions for the sake of your conscience,

But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof:

Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

But as for cowards and the unfaithful, and the polluted, and murderers, fornicators, and those who practise magic or worship idols, and all liars--the portion allotted to them shall be in the Lake which burns with fire and sulphur. This is the Second Death."

The unclean are shut out, and so are all who practise magic, all fornicators, all murderers, and those who worship idols, and every one who loves falsehood and tells lies.