We meet with this word, Judges 17:5. The translators of the Bible have retained the word as it is in the original, in this place, and also Hosea 3:4; but the same word, Genesis 31:19, they have rendered images, though they still have preserved the word Teraphim in the margin at that verse. It is attended with no small difficulty to apprehend what these Teraphim were. It would be easy to suppose, and indeed at once conclude, that they were idols for worship, were it not that the Lord by the prophet Hosea seems to speak in the Scripture referred to, that the children of Israel in their desolations should be without them, which, if idols, would have been their mercy, and not their misery. Nevertheless, as in the case of Rachel there seems a pretty clear testimony that her Teraphim were idols for worship, it is more than probable the whole we meet with in Scripture were to the same purpose. (See Genesis 35:2-4)