Did David keep household idols?

Question

The biblical account of David's first escape from Saul in 1 Sam 19 mentions that his wife Michal camouflaged his escape by hiding an "image" (KJV) or a "household idol" (NASB) in his bed.

Is that to mean that David allowed idols in his own home?

Answer 1

Idols were commonplace in David's time, perhaps his wife Michal went out and purchased one to help cover up his escape.

Another possibility is that other residents in his household worshiped the idols and David never expressly forbade idols from his household, thus Michal may have borrowed or moved an idol from elsewhere in the house.

Answer 2

Any idol large enough to simulate a human in bed is too large to go unnoticed by David, so the idea that David did not notice the household idol doesn't seem to wash. So why did David allow it? Anything we say is conjecture because at this point we aren't told anything else about it. You could project that they were so commonplace that David just wanted to keep the peace with Michal and chose not to make it an issue. We're drawn to this bit of info because it would seem so unlike David to permit this.

Answer 3

American Standard Version 1 Samuel 19:13

And Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats hair at the head thereof, and covered it with the clothes.

Brown-Driver-Briggs

a kind of idol, object of reverence, and means of divination

teraphim can mean generally an object of reverence.

Benson explains it this way:

If we may believe Abarbinel and Abendana, “women in those times were accustomed to have figures made in the likeness of their husbands, that when they were absent from them they might have their image to look upon.” If this really be a fact, it is probable that Michal’s image was one of this kind; or it was merely a statue for ornament. For we cannot suppose that any images, whether called teraphim or by any other name, were kept for the purposes of idolatry in David’s family.

Gill gives a similar explanation:

Abarbinel makes mention of several sorts of teraphim, some for idolatry, some to draw down the heavenly influences, some to know the time of the day, a sort of dials; some were made after the form of a man known, and like him in his form and features; and women, he says, used to have the forms or statues of their husbands, that they might have them continually before them, because of the great love they had to them; and of this sort he supposes were the teraphim of Michal, and which is approved of by Abendana; and that this image had the likeness of an human face is very probable, or it could not have so well answered her purpose:

There is no indication that David, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) has ever worshipped idols.

Answer 4

I heard some reference to house idols being made of gold and silver, so they may have been used as a savings. If true, then stealing an idol might mean more than stealing coinage or other forms that gold or silver might be shaped into.

Answer 5

A clue to the reason that Michal and/or David possessed a teraphim is found in 2 Kgs. 23:24

Moreover Josi′ah put away the mediums and the wizards and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilki′ah the priest found in the house of the Lord. (RSV)

This text makes a distinction between teraphim and idols, so the answer to the main OP question is a simple "no." It also implies that until Hilkiah's book of the Law was discovered many centuries later, teraphim were common. Their exact use is much debated, but the law prohibiting possession of them was not enforced until Josiah's reign.

Michal, Rebekah and Rachel

Another issue here is the literary parallel between this incident and two others, both involving a providential deception of an aging patriarch by his wife or daughter. In Genesis 27:14-16. Rebekah uses goat hair (as Michal did) to deceive Isaac and procure the blessing of Jacob. In Genesis 31, Rachel steals her father's teraphim, brings it (or them) with her on the journey to Canaan, and deceives him again by hiding it/them under her saddle.

The parallels of these episodes to Michal's action cannot be coincidental. Based on the previous examples, I like to think that Michal took the teraphim from Saul's house shortly before using it to deceive the assassins her father sent to kill David. The narrative clearly portrays her action as a noble one.

Teraphim are distinct from idols so the answer to the OP is "no," with the disclaimer that we don't exactly know what they were or how Michal and/or David used them. Whether David knew of the teraphim's presence in his home is beside the point, which is that Michal - like Rebekah and Rachel before her - put the welfare of God's chosen one first, risking her life to do so, even if it meant deceiving the male earthly authority of the previous generation.

Answer 6

Having the idol in his home is a clear sign of henotheism. All though David worshiped Yahweh, they still acknowledged the fact that other people had gods of their own accord. It is not until 2nd Isaiah where we see the universalism of an absolute monotheistic society. I hope this helps you!