{"id":79524,"date":"2020-09-02T18:16:39","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T15:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79524"},"modified":"2020-09-02T18:40:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T15:40:03","slug":"the-teraphim-spoke-delusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-teraphim-spoke-delusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Teraphim Spoke Delusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"79524","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"560","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But who - or what - are they?\r\n\r\n","content":"

The first observation we offer to this chapter is that it starts in the wrong place. 10:1, \u201cAsk the LORD for rain in the season of late rain,\u201d belongs to the previous prophecy that struck a distinctive agricultural note: \u201c[He shall pasture] His people like sheep. [They shall be] like crown jewels glittering on His soil. How lovely, how beautiful they shall be, producing young men like new grain, young women like new wine\u201d (9:16-17).<\/span><\/p>\n

A new prophecy, on the liberation of Judah and the redemption of Ephraim, commences with 10:2: \u201cFor the <\/span>teraphim<\/em> <\/span>spoke delusion, the augurs predicted falsely; and dreamers speak lies and console with illusions. That is why My people have strayed like a flock, they suffer for lack of a shepherd.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n

We have encountered <\/span>teraphim<\/em> <\/span>on several previous occasions. First, Rachel stole her father Laban\u2019s <\/span>teraphim<\/em> <\/span>as she departed from Haran with her husband Jacob (Gen. 31:19) and later hid them under her camel\u2019s saddle blanket (31:34), giving us some indication of their size. Along similar lines, David\u2019s wife, Michal, placed <\/span>teraphim<\/em> <\/span>in his bed and covered them with an animal hide creating the impression that he was in bed asleep (1 Samuel 19:13), giving us some indication of their shape.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Judges 18:14, 17, 18, and 20, <\/span>teraphim<\/em> <\/span>keep the company of a priestly robe (<\/span>ephod<\/span><\/em>), idols (<\/span>pesel<\/span><\/em>), and molten images (<\/span>masekhah<\/span><\/em>), indicating that they served a quasi-religious function. Ezekiel mentioned them together with arrows as a form of divination utilized by the king of Babylon (21:26), Hosea placed them alongside sacrifices (<\/span>zevach<\/span><\/em>) and pillars (<\/span>matzevah<\/span><\/em>), and in 2 Kings 23:24, they are said to keep the company of divination via ghosts (<\/span>ov<\/span><\/em>) or familiar spirits (<\/span>yid`oni<\/span><\/em>). Modern scholarship has been unable to identify the word\u2019s etymology and defines it, contextually, as: \u201ca kind of idol, obj. of reverence, and means of divination\u201d (BDB).<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, the entry for <\/span>teraphim<\/em> <\/span>in the Oxford English dictionary gives its etymology as the Greek \u201c<\/span>teraphin<\/span><\/em>,\u201d which is just a transliteration of the Hebrew, and defines it as \u201c<\/span>a kind of idols or images, or an idol or image; apparently <\/span>esp.<\/span><\/i> household gods; an object of reverence and means of divination among the ancient Hebrews and kindred peoples.\u201d It also suggests that its apparent plural form (\u2026<\/span>im<\/span><\/em>) should be regarded like a plural of majesty, a linguistic feature we can easily recognize in the common noun <\/span>elohim<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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