Keluaran 34:13

34:13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. ¹ 

Hakim-hakim 3:7

Othniel: A Model Leader

3:7 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. ²  They forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs. ³ 

Hakim-hakim 3:2

3:2 He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ⁴ 

1 Raja-raja 17:10

17:10 So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup ⁵  of water, so I can take a drink.”

[34:13]  ¹ tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”

[34:13]  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).

[3:7]  ² tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[3:7]  ³ sn The Asherahs were local manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Asherah.

[3:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew syntax of v. 2 is difficult. The Hebrew text reads literally, “only in order that the generations of the Israelites might know, to teach them war – only those who formerly did not know them.”

[3:2]  sn The stated purpose for leaving the nations (to teach the subsequent generations…how to conduct holy war) seems to contradict 2:22 and 3:4, which indicate the nations were left to test Israel’s loyalty to the Lord. However, the two stated purposes can be harmonized. The willingness of later generations to learn and engage in holy war would measure their allegiance to the Lord (see B. G. Webb, Judges [JSOTSup], 114-15).

[17:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “a little.”