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.
1 tn Heb “an Asherah, any tree.”
1 tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.