And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.

Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.

And she said to her father, Let it not displease ° my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.

Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

31:32 thy gods. These “gods” were small household images (or teraphim), used both in religious observances (evidently Laban, though he knew about the true God, had been influenced to a degree by the paganism around him) and also as tokens of ownership of the real estate where their possessor lived. As such, it was considered a capital crime to steal them. Rachel, however, took this risk presumably because Laban had not given either her or Leah “any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house” (Genesis 31:14). Laban did not find them in Jacob’s possessions (Rachel had hidden them well), but we do not know whether this loss ever caused any commercial problem for him. In any case, because of their idolatrous associations, Jacob later buried all these pagan mementos at Bethel (Genesis 35:4).

35:2 the strange gods. His family and servants still had some of the pagan images and charms they had brought from Syria, not to mention the spoils of Shechem. These spoils had to be buried before they could really meet God at Bethel (like many modern believers who try to retain many of the accouterments of ungodliness from which they had been once delivered).

25:8 I may dwell. Instead of the prohibited images representing a “god,” the true God provides a symbolic dwelling where He can dwell with His people, a type of the coming Holy City (Revelation 21:1-3).

33:52 pictures. The Hebrew word refers to images carved in relief.

5:8 any graven image. Archaeological excavations in the lands of the Bible have yielded images of many so-called gods and goddesses. It is significant, however, that no excavator has yet unearthed an image purporting to represent Jehovah (or Yahweh).

2:13 Baal and Ashtaroth. Baal and Ashtaroth were the principal god and goddess, respectively, of the Canaanite nations (Baalim and Ashtaroth were the plural forms of these names, referring to the many shrines and images in their honor). Baal was essentially associated with the sun and storms, Ashtaroth with sex and fertility. As nature gods, energized by demonic spirits, they claimed to have “evolved” out of the primeval watery chaos. The worship of both was both grossly licentious and extremely cruel. They were essentially equivalent to similar gods in other countries, all having originated at the first Babylon under Nimrod and then spread throughout the ancient world with the dispersion.

7:4 Baalim and Ashtaroth. The worship of Baal and Ashtaroth, the chief god and goddess of the Canaanites, as well as the Moabites, the Phoenicians, and many others, had been a snare to Israel ever since the death of Joshua (Judges 2:13) and continued until the time they were carried into exile in Babylon (Jeremiah 32:28,29). “Baalim” and “Ashtaroth” are plural nouns, referring to the images of these supposed deities (actually mere personifications of natural phenomena—Ashtaroth, for example, was the goddess of fertility) or to their various manifestations. The worship of these deities was commonly accompanied by unspeakably cruel and licentious rites, and largely accounts for God’s command to Israel to destroy them out of the land.

23:6 the grove. The “grove” in the house of the Lord was obviously not a group of trees. The Hebrew word is asherah. There are indications that tree stumps in these groves were carved with various lewd figures and that the prostitute priestesses and priests of Baal led in ritualistic sexual activities in the groves, thereby encouraging the “worshippers” to do likewise. Thus the asherah became identified with wooden images associated with Baal’s fertility rites, and the same name thus became identified with the god’s female consort. For such a wooden image of Asherah or Ashtoreth (equivalent also to Astarah) to be installed in the house of the Lord, with all her immoral ceremonies carried out there, was indeed the height of blasphemy and had certainly incurred God’s wrath.

32:19 gods of the people. This equating of “the God of Jerusalem,” who is the true God of creation, with “the gods of the people of the earth,” who are evil spirits and whose images are mere constructs of men’s hands or men’s philosophical speculations, is actually blasphemy, and such action cannot go unpunished forever. It is forbidden in the very first of God’s ten commandments (Exodus 20:3-5).

34:9 delivered the money. As in the days of Hezekiah (II Chronicles 30:10-12), Josiah sent messengers to all the tribes raising money to repair the temple. Whether the people gave willingly or not is a question, but they had certainly been impressed by Josiah’s zeal in purging the land of its practitioners of paganism and its altars and images.