[Judaic] The etiology of the word itself is subject to debate. It may be a derivation of the Hittite tarpi, meaning "spirit, of possibly from the Arabic, raffa, "shine." Terafim were small figurines, evidently representations of either gods or ancestors, kept in the homes by the Semitic peoples. Terafim were clearly regarded to be objects of power, as illustrated by the determination of Laban to retrieve the terafim removed by his daughter Rachel when she departed with Jacob (Gen. 31:34). Scholars speculate that terafim may have been part of a complex of beliefs concerning the deified dead among the western Semitic peoples, including the Hebrews. The Hebrew Scriptures clearly associates terafim with mantic practices (Judges 17:5; 18:14; Ezek. 21:26; Ho. 3:4; Zech. 10:2). The exact manner of their divinatory use is unclear, though Ezek. 21:26 raises the possibility that arrows or other sticks may have been cast in front of the statues. The terafim had some connection to the Urim and Thummi...
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