For a father worn with untimely grief, making an image of the child quickly taken away, now honored him as a god which was then a dead human being, and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. Servants. This was at first done privately, and made the way for public idolatry. Calvin attempts to refute this assertion, maintaining that Laban’s idols were more ancient, and not images. But this argument is nugatory, as theraphim may be rendered either images, (Prot. 1552.) or idols. Prot. 1603. The latter version is preferable, as Laban called them his gods, and the Greek and Latin have idols. It is also certain, that Ninus set up the image of his father, Jupiter Belus, to be honoured by the people, before Abraham’s time; and the fathers agree, that the making of images in memory of the dead, was the first occasion of idolatry. Saint John Chrysostom hom. 87. in Matt. Saint Jerome in Osee ii. and so forth Worthington.—Nimrod ordered divine honours to be paid to his deceased son. Gul. Paris. Leg.—Yet this fact is not certain. Diophante, the Lacedemonian, assigns the same origin to idolatry as is here given. Grot.