1 Samuel 19 · a question people ask
What were teraphim doing in David's house?
The chapter doesn't say. It says only that "Michal took the teraphim and laid it in the bed" (19:13), and that when the messengers came in, "behold, the teraphim was in the bed" (19:16). It doesn't say whose they were, where they had been kept, what they looked like, or whether David knew of them. The word comes elsewhere. "Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s" (Genesis 31:19), and Laban called them "my gods" (Genesis 31:30). In Judges, Micah "made an ephod, and teraphim" (Judges 17:5). And four chapters before this one, Samuel told Saul, "stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim" (15:23). Tap teraphim for what the lexicons say the word means.
The verses
“Michal took the teraphim and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with clothes.”
“When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head.”
“Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.”
“Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?””