Definition

a likeness

Etymology

or סֵמֶל; from an unused root meaning to resemble;

Where the KJV renders it

• figure
• idol
• image

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.