And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.
Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's, [Hebrew, hatªraapiym (H8655)] - the Teraphim; Penates or household gods, apparently miniature representations of the human form, used as objects of inferior worship, or for purposes of divination, in later times (Ezekiel 21:21; Zechariah 10:2), as dispensers of domestic happiness, and oracles (Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14; 2 Kings 23:24; Ezekiel 21:16; Zechariah 10:2; Hosea 3:4). The etymology is uncertain. Bunsen ('Egypt's Place,' chapter 4:, p. 196) derives it from х `aarap (H6201)] to pluck off, and considers them images of family ancestors exalted to divine honours. Jurieu takes the same view, but supposes them to have been images of Noah and Shem-Noah as the second father of the human race, and Shem as ancestor of Laban's family ('Hist. Critique des dogmes and et des cultes').
Gesenius traces the word Teraphim to the root verb х taarap (H2963)], to live in comfort, to be prosperous. Others think that it comes from [rapaa'] to relax with fear, to strike with terror; because the Teraphim are believed to have been of hideous appearance, as are some small images of baked clay, of repulsive aspect, found by Botta at Khorsabad, and supposed to be the Teraphim. The word, though in a plural form, may denote only one image (as in 1 Samuel 19:13).