Household idols used for divination and as markers of inheritance-rights in patriarchal and early Israelite contexts. The Hebrew teraphim appears throughout the OT in consistently negative context. Rachel stole her father Laban's teraphim when Jacob fled Mesopotamia (Gen 31:19, 30-35) — possibly to claim inheritance rights or to bring household-god protection along with her, but Scripture treats the act as theologically problematic. Michal placed a teraphim in David's bed to deceive Saul's messengers (1 Sam 19:13) — suggesting it was approximately human-sized. Josiah destroyed the teraphim in his reforming purge (2 Kings 23:24): And the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away. Zechariah 10:2 condemns those who consult the teraphim: For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie. The category belongs with the Deut 18:10-12 list of forbidden divinatory practices; teraphim are pre-modern household idolatry, with the same biblical verdict as modern occult tools.