Idol in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Of the 19 Hebrew words for it and IMAGE many express the abhorrence which idolatry deserves and the shame and sorrow of the idolater. (1) Awen, "vanity," "nothingness," "wickedness," "sorrow" (Isaiah 66:3; Isaiah 41:29; Deuteronomy 32:21; 1 Kings 16:13; Psalm 31:6; Jeremiah 8:19; Jeremiah 10:8; Zechariah 10:2; 1 Samuel 15:23). "Beth-el," the house of God, is named "Beth-aven," house of vanity, because of the calf worship. (2) Eliyl, either a contemptuous diminutive of Eel, God, godling; or from al "not," a "thing of naught." There is a designed contrast between the contemptible liliym and the Divine Elohim (Psalm 97:7; Isaiah 19:3, "non-entities" margin Ezekiel 30:13). (3) emah, "terror," (Jeremiah 1:38) "they are mad after their idols," hideous forms more fitted to frighten than to attract, bugbears to frighten children with. (4) miphletseth, "a fright": Maachah's idol which Asa cut down (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 15:16); the phallus, symbol of the generative organ, the nature goddess Asherah's productive power. Jeremiah 10:2-5 graphically describes the making of an idol and its impotence. (5) bosheth, "shame": not merely shameful, but the essence of shame, bringing shame on its votaries and especially expressing the obscenity of Baal's and Baal Peor's worship (Jeremiah 11:13; Hosea 9:10). (6) gillulim, from gal "a heap of stones" (Gesenius): Ezekiel 30:13; Ezekiel 16:36; Deuteronomy 29:17, "dungy gods" margin (7) shiquts, ceremonial "uncleanness" (Ezekiel 37:23). The worshippers "became loathsome like their love," for men never rise above their object of worship; "they that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them" (Psalm 115:4-8). (8) ceemel, a "likeness" (Deuteronomy 4:16). (9) tselem, from tseel "a shadow" (Daniel 3:1; 1 Samuel 6:5), "the image" as distinguished from the demuth, "likeness," the exact counterpart (Greek eikoon; Colossians 1:15; Genesis 1:27). The "image" presupposes a prototype. "Likeness" (Greek homoiosis) implies mere resemblance, not the exact counterpart and derivation, hence the Son is never called the "likeness" of the Father but the "Image" (1 Corinthians 11:7; John 1:18; John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 1:3). The idol is supposed to be an "image" exactly representing some person or object. (10) timahuh "similitude," "form "(Deuteronomy 4:12- 19, where Moses forbids successively the several forms of Gentile idolatry: ancestor worship, as that of Terah (Joshua 24:2), Laban (Genesis 31:19; Genesis 31:30; Genesis 31:32), and Jacob's household (Genesis 35:2-4), to guard against which Moses' sepulchre was hidden; hero worship and relic worship (Judges 8:27; Judges 17:4; 2 Kings 18:4); nature worship, whether of the lower animals as in Egypt, or of the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, as among the Persians). (11) atzab, etzeb, otzeb, "a figure," from aatzab "to fashion"; with the additional idea of sorrowful labour (Isaiah 48:5; Psalm 139:24), "see if there be any wicked way (way of pain, way of an idol, Isaiah 48:5) in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." The way of idolatry, however refined, proves to be a way of pain, and shuts out from the way everlasting (1 John 5:21; Revelation 21:8; 1 Corinthians 10:20-21). Tacitus, the Roman historian (Hist. 5:4), notices the contrast between Judaism and the whole pagan world, which disproves the notion that it borrowed from the latter and consecrated several of their rites. "The Jews conceive the Divinity as One, and to be understood only by the mind; they deem...