Micah's Teraphim

Abstract

Determining the proper interpretation of the eight passages in the Hebrew Bible in which the term ְתּ ָר ִפים occurs (Gen 31:19–35; Judges 17–18; 1 Sam 15:23; 19:11–17; 2 Kgs 23:24; Ezek 21:26 [in most of the Bible’s English versions, 21:21]; Hos 3:4; and Zech 10:2) has proven to be, in many respects, a vexing problem for scholars. For example, as well documented by K. van der Toorn and T.J. Lewis in their jointly authored “ְתָּר ִפים ” entry in the Theo- logical Dictionary of the Old Testament, and in addition by van der Toorn in a 1990 article that appeared in the Catholic Biblical Quar- terly, no consensus has been reached regarding the etymology of