Word study
Idol
13 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: idols, idol. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “idol” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- גִּלּוּל gillûlidolstranslated this way 46 times of its 48 uses · Strong’s H1544Noun · Translated: idols 46, idolatry 2Full study and all 45 verses →
Leviticus 26:30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
Deuteronomy 29:17 You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold.
- פֶּסֶל peselidol, imagetranslated this way 17 times of its 31 uses · Strong’s H6459Noun · Translated: idol 10, graven image 8, idols 6, carved image 3Full study and all 31 verses →
Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
Deuteronomy 4:16 that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,
- עָצָב âtsâbidoltranslated this way 16 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6091Noun · Translated: idols 16, images 1Full study and all 17 verses →
1 Samuel 31:9 They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.
2 Samuel 5:21 There the Philistines abandoned their idols, and David and his men carried them away.
- פְּסִיל pesîlid.translated this way 15 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H6456Noun · Translated: idols 13, carved images 4, images 3, carved idols 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:5 Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.
Judges 3:19 But upon reaching the idols near Gilgal, he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” “Silence,” said the king, and all his attendants left him.
- אֱלִיל ĕlîlfelt to suggesttranslated this way 13 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H457Noun · Translated: idols 13, worthless 2, idolatrous 1, images 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 19:4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the LORD your God.
1 Chronicles 16:26 For all the gods of the nations are idols, but it is the LORD who made the heavens.
- תְּרָפִים terâphîmTeraphimtranslated this way 12 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H8655Noun · Translated: household idols 6, household gods 2, idol 2, idols 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Genesis 31:19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
Judges 17:5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.
- הֶבֶל hebelvapour, breathtranslated this way 11 times of its 73 uses · Strong’s H1892Noun · Translated: futile 25, worthless idols 9, futility 8, fleeting 5Full study and all 64 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
1 Kings 16:13 This happened because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their worthless idols.
- מַסֵּכָה massêkâhmolten metal, or imagetranslated this way 7 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H4541Noun · Translated: molten 5, molten idol 5, cast images 4, molten image 3Full study and all 28 verses →
Judges 17:3 And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”
2 Kings 17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.
- צֶלֶם tselemimagetranslated this way 5 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H6754Noun · Translated: idols 5, image 4, images 4, in his 1Full study and all 15 verses →
Numbers 33:52 you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
2 Kings 11:18 So all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols to pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. And Jehoiada the priest posted guards for the house of the LORD.
- שִׁקּוּץ shiqqûtsdetested thingtranslated this way 5 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H8251Noun · Translated: abominations 9, abomination 8, detestable idols 5, detestable things 2Full study and all 26 verses →
2 Chronicles 15:8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the LORD that was in front of the portico of the LORD’s temple.
Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
- סֶמֶל semelimage, statuetranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5566Noun · Translated: idol 3, shape 1, image 1Full study and all 5 verses →
2 Chronicles 33:15 He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, along with all the altars he had built on the temple mount and in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.
Ezekiel 8:3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.
- יָעַל yâalprofit, avail, benefittranslated this way 2 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H3276Verb · Translated: profit 5, benefit 4, worthless 2, idols 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.
Jeremiah 2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
- שָׁוְא shâveemptiness, vanitytranslated this way 2 times of its 52 uses · Strong’s H7723Noun · Translated: vain 12, false 8, falsehood 4, worthless 4Full study and all 47 verses →
Psalm 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
Jeremiah 18:15 Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.
Greek words (New Testament)
- εἴδωλον eídōlonan idol, false godtranslated this way 11 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G1497Noun · Translated: idols 8, idol 3Full study and all 11 verses →
Acts 7:41 At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.
Romans 2:22 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
- εἰδωλόθυτον eidōlóthytonsacrificed to an imagetranslated this way 10 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G1494Adjective · Translated: food sacrificed to idols 4, sacrificed to idols 3, sacrificed to an idol 1, food sacrificed to an idol 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about idol: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.