Genesis 31:19

31:19 While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, ¹  Rachel stole the household idols ²  that belonged to her father.

Genesis 31:34

31:34 (Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle ³  and sat on them.) ⁴  Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them. ⁵ 

Genesis 31:2

31:2 When Jacob saw the look on Laban’s face, he could tell his attitude toward him had changed. ⁶ 

Genesis 17:19

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ⁷  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ⁸  covenant for his descendants after him.

Psalms 44:20-21

44:20 If we had rejected our God, ⁹ 

and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, ¹⁰ 

44:21 would not God discover it,

for he knows ¹¹  one’s thoughts? ¹² 

Jeremiah 23:24

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ¹³ 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ¹⁴ 

the Lord asks. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 8:7-12

8:7 He brought me to the entrance of the court, and as I watched, I noticed a hole in the wall. 8:8 He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and discovered a doorway.

8:9 He said to me, “Go in and see the evil abominations they are practicing here.” 8:10 So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ¹⁶  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ¹⁷  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ¹⁸  8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel ¹⁹  (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant ²⁰  vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.

8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? ²¹  For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”

Ezekiel 14:4

14:4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry. ²² 

[31:19]  ¹ tn This disjunctive clause (note the pattern conjunction + subject + verb) introduces a new scene. In the English translation it may be subordinated to the following clause.

[31:19]  ² tn Or “household gods.” Some translations merely transliterate the Hebrew term תְּרָפִים (tÿrafim) as “teraphim,” which apparently refers to household idols. Some contend that possession of these idols guaranteed the right of inheritance, but it is more likely that they were viewed simply as protective deities. See M. Greenberg, “Another Look at Rachel’s Theft of the Teraphim,” JBL 81 (1962): 239-48.

[31:34]  ³ tn The “camel’s saddle” was probably some sort of basket-saddle, a cushioned saddle with a basket bound on. Cf. NAB “inside a camel cushion.”

[31:34]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by a vav [ו] conjunction) provides another parenthetical statement necessary to the storyline.

[31:34]  ⁵ tn The word “them” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[31:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Jacob saw the face of Laban, and look, he was not with him as formerly.” Jacob knew from the expression on Laban’s face that his attitude toward him had changed – Jacob had become persona non grata.

[17:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).

[17:19]  ⁸ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[44:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the Lord’s authority (see Jer 23:27) and abandoning him as an object of prayer and worship (see the next line).

[44:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).

[44:21]  ¹¹ tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.

[44:21]  ¹² tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.

[23:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ¹⁴ tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “pattern.”

[8:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.

[8:10]  ¹⁸ sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).

[8:11]  ¹⁹ sn Note the contrast between these seventy men who represented Israel and the seventy elders who ate the covenant meal before God, inaugurating the covenant relationship (Exod 24:1, 9).

[8:11]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[8:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:4]  ²² tn Heb “in accordance with the multitude of his idols.”