Isaiah 30:22

Ye shall defile also the covering, &c.— The meaning of these words is, that the people, at the period of time here marked out, should refrain from idolatry; not public only, but private and domestic also, which seems here particularly to be described; for the Jews, prone to idolatry even when it was publicly prohibited, did not fail to retain in their houses those little images of divination, which the Latins called Penates, and the Hebrews anciently תרפים Teraphim. It is remarkable, as we have before observed, that after their return from Babylon they never relapsed into idolatry. The beginning of this verse might be rendered, And you shall deem unclean, every one of you, the covering of his graven images, &c.