Ulangan 16:21

Examples of Legal Cases

16:21 You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole ¹  near the altar of the Lord your God which you build for yourself.

Mikha 5:14

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ²  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ³ 

[16:21]  ¹ tn Heb “an Asherah, any tree.”

[16:21]  sn Sacred Asherah pole. This refers to a tree (or wooden pole) dedicated to the worship of Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. See also Deut 7:5.

[5:14]  ² tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4). The Lord states that he will destroy these images, something the Israelites themselves should have done but failed to do.

[5:14]  ³ tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).