id'-a-la, i-da'-la (yidh'alah): A town in the territory of Zebulun, named with Shimron and Beth-lehem (Josh 19:15). The Talmud identifies it with Churyeh (Talm Jerusalem on Megh., I, 1). This, Conder thinks, may be represented by the modern Khirbet el-Chuwara to the South of Beit Lachm.
id'-bash (yidhbash, "honeysweet"(?)): A man of Judah, one of the sons of the father of Etam (1 Ch 4:3; Septuagint "sons of Etam").
id'-o:
(1) ('iddo (?[~'adhadh, "to be strong"), "hap," "happy" (?), Ezr 8:17): The "chief at the place Casiphia," who provided Ezra with Levites and Nethinim, the head of the Levitical body or school, said to be one of the Nethinim or temple slaves, but perhaps an "and" has slipped out, and it should read: "his brethren and the Nethinim." 1 Esdras 8:45,46 has "Loddeus (the King James Version "Saddeus"), the captain who was in the place of the treasury," keceph meaning silver. Septuagint has "in the place of the silver (en argurio tou topou) .... to his brethren and to the treasurers."
(2) (yiddo, "beloved," or "loving," 1 Ch 27:21): Son of Zechariah, and captain of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, under David.
(3) (yiddo, "beloved," or "loving," Ezr 10:43): One of those who had taken foreign wives. Another reading is Jaddai, the King James Version "Jadau." In 1 Esdras 9:35 "Edos" (the King James Version "Edes").
(4) (`iddo', "timely," 1 Ki 4:14): Father of Abinadab, Solomon's commissary in Mahanaim in Gilead.
(5) (yiddo, "beloved," or "loving," 1 Ch 6:21): A Gershomite Levite, son of Joah, called Adaiah in verse 41; ancestor of Asaph.
(6) (ye`do (Kethibh ye`di), or `iddo, "decked," "adorned"): Seer (chozeh) and prophet (nabhi), the Chronicler's "source" for the reign of Solomon (2 Ch 9:29): "The visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat"; and for the reign of Rehoboam (2 Ch 12:15): "The histories of Iddo (`iddo) the seer, after the manner of (or, "in reckoning") genealogies"; and for the reign of Abijah (2 Ch 13:22): "The commentary (midhrash) of the prophet Iddo" (`iddo). He may have been the prophet who denounced Jeroboam (1 Ki 13), who is called by Josephus and Jerome Jadon, or Jaddo. Jerome makes Iddo and Oded the same.
(7) (`iddo, "timely," Zec 1:1): Grandfather (father, according to Ezra) of the prophet, Zechariah. See also Zec 1:7; Ezr 5:1; 6:14 (`iddo'). In 1 Esdras 6:1, "Addo."
(8) (`iddo', "decked," "adorned," Neh 12:4,16): A priest who went up with Zerubbabel (12:4); one of the priestly clans which went up (12:16); perhaps same as (7).
Philip Wendell Crannell
i'-d'-l, i'-d'-l-nes: Both words, adjective and noun, render different Hebrew words (from `atsel, "to be lazy," raphah, "to relax," and shaqaT, "to be quiet"). According to the Yahwistic narrative Pharaoh's retort to the complaints of the Israelites was a charge of indolence (Ex 5:8,17). It was a favorite thought of Hebrew wisdom--practical philosophy of life--that indolence inevitably led to poverty and want (Prov 19:15; Eccl 10:18). The "virtuous woman" was one who would not eat the "bread of idleness" (Prov 31:27). In Ezek 16:49 for the King James Version "abundance of idleness," the Revised Version (British and American) has "prosperous ease." In the New Testament "idle" generally renders the Greek word argos, literally, "inactive," "useless" (Mt 20:3,6). In Lk 24:11 "idle talk" corresponds to one Greek word which means "empty gossip" or "nonsensical talk."
T. Lewis
i-dol'-a-tri (teraphim, "household idols," "idolatry"; eidololatreia): There is ever in the human mind a craving for visible forms to express religious conceptions, and this tendency does not disappear with the acceptance, or even with the constant recognition, of pure spiritual truths (see IMAGES ). Idolatry originally meant the worship of idols, or the worship of false gods by means of idols, but came to mean among the Old Testament Hebrews any worship of false gods, whether by images or otherwise, and finally the worship of Yahweh through visible symbols (Hos 8:5,6; 10:5); and ultimately in the New Testament idolatry came to mean, not only the giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion which belonged to God alone, but the giving to any human desire a precedence over God's will (1 Cor 10:14; Gal 5:20; Col 3:5; 1 Pet 4:3). The neighboring gods of Phoenicia, Canaan, Moab--Baal, Melkart, Astarte, Chemosh, Moloch, etc.--were particularly attractive to Jerusalem, while the old Semitic calf-worship seriously affected the state religion of the Northern Kingdom (see GOLDEN CALF ). As early as the Assyrian and Babylonian periods (8th and 7th centuries BC), various deities from the Tigris and Euphrates had intruded themselves--the worship of Tammuz becoming a little later the most popular and seductive of all (Ezek 8:14)--while the worship of the sun, moon, stars and signs of the Zodiac became so intensely fascinating that these were introduced even into the temple itself (2 Ki 17:16; 21:3-7; 23:4,12; Jer 19:13; Ezek 8:16; Am 5:26).
The special enticements to idolatry as offered by these various cults were found in their deification of natural forces and their appeal to primitive human desires, especially the sexual; also through associations produced by intermarriage and through the appeal to patriotism, when the help of some cruel deity was sought in time of war. Baal and Astarte worship, which was especially attractive, was closely associated with fornication and drunkenness (Am 2:7,8; compare 1 Ki 14:23 f), and also appealed greatly to magic and soothsaying (e.g. Isa 2:6; 3:2; 8:19).
Sacrifices to the idols were offered by fire (Hos 4:13); libations were poured out (Isa 57:6; Jer 7:18); the first-fruits of the earth and tithes were presented (Hos 2:8); tables of food were set before them (Isa 65:11); the worshippers kissed the idols or threw them kisses (1 Ki 19:18; Hos 13:2; Job 31:27); stretched out their hands in adoration (Isa 44:20); knelt or prostrated themselves before them and sometimes danced about the altar, gashing themselves with knives (1 Ki 18:26,28; for a fuller summary see EB ).
Even earlier than the Babylonian exile the Hebrew prophets taught that Yahweh was not only superior to all other gods, but reigned alone as God, other deities being nonentities (Lev 19:4; Isa 2:8,18,20; 19:1,3; 31:7; 44:9-20). The severe satire of this period proves that the former fear of living demons supposed to inhabit the idols had disappeared. These prophets also taught that the temple, ark and sacrifices were not essential to true spiritual worship (e.g. Jer 3:16; Am 5:21-25). These prophecies produced a strong reaction against the previously popular idol-worship, though later indications of this worship are not infrequent (Ezek 14:1-8; Isa 42:17). The Maccabean epoch placed national heroism plainly on the side of the one God, Yahweh; and although Greek and Egyptian idols were worshipped in Gaza and Ascalon and other half-heathen communities clear down to the 5th or 6th century of the Christian era, yet in orthodox centers like Jerusalem these were despised and repudiated utterly from the 2nd century BC onward.
See also GOLDEN CALF ;GODS ;IMAGES ;TERAPHIM .
LITERATURE.
Wm. Wake, A Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry, 1688; W.R. Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites; E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture; J.G. Frazer, Golden Bough (3 vols); L.R. Farnell, Evolution of Religion, 1905; Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte; Beathgen, Der Gott Israels u. die Gotter der Heiden, 1888.
Camden M. Cobern
id'-u-el (Idouelos): 1 Esdras 8:43, English versions, margin "ARIEL" (which see).
id-u-me'-a, id-u-me'-anz.
See EDOM .