ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף שמואל א 19:16

Concerning the significance of the Teraphim, Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra writes: “I am fairly convinced that these Teraphim resembled a human shape in order to enable them to receive celestial powers’ input. However, I cannot explain this in further detail (as the Torah has forbidden this). We can conjecture that Ibn Ezra was correct when we consider that Michal, David’s wife and daughter of King Saul had placed Teraphim in David’s bed to mislead the King’s police into thinking that David himself occupied that bed (compare Samuel I 19,16). [Michal had claimed that her husband was sick and could not present himself at court.] This leaves us with the question of how to explain Hoseah 3,4 ואין אפוד ותרפים, “that the Israelites would go for a long time without either Ephod or Teraphim.” The meaning there seems to be that they would practice no religion, neither the Jewish religion symbolised by the Ephod which contained the means for the High Priest to receive communication from G’d, nor Teraphim which was a means to receive such communication from spiritually negative forces in the celestial spheres.

The teraphim. Images²⁰In I Shmuel 19:16, Rashi described teraphim as being made in the likeness of a human figure. that speak through sorcery, and the one who make them must determine a certain time in the year, and a certain year that is appropriate for this.