Micah 5:14

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ¹  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ² 

Deuteronomy 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ³  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ⁵  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 17:9-10

17:9 You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict. 17:10 You must then do as they have determined at that place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught.

Deuteronomy 21:3-7

21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ⁷  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke – 21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, ⁸  to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. ⁹  There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 21:5 Then the Levitical priests ¹⁰  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ¹¹  and to decide ¹²  every judicial verdict ¹³ ) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹⁴  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ¹⁵  21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we ¹⁶  witnessed the crime. ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 28:4

28:4 Your children ¹⁹  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

Jeremiah 17:2

17:2 Their children are always thinking about ²⁰  their ²¹  altars

and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ²² 

set up beside the green trees on the high hills

¹ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

² tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

³ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

⁴ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

⁵ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

⁶ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

⁷ tn Heb “slain [one].”

⁸ tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.

⁹ sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

¹⁰ tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

¹¹ tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹² tn Heb “by their mouth.”

¹³ tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “slain [one].”

¹⁵ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

¹⁶ tn Heb “our eyes.” This is a figure of speech known as synecdoche in which the part (the eyes) is put for the whole (the entire person).

¹⁷ tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

¹⁹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

²⁰ tn It is difficult to convey in good English style the connection between this verse and the preceding. The text does not have a finite verb but a temporal preposition with an infinitive: Heb “while their children remember their altars…” It is also difficult to translate the verb “literally.” (i.e., what does “remember” their altars mean?). Hence it has been rendered “always think about.” Another possibility would be “have their altars…on their minds.”

²¹ tc This reading follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions. Many other Hebrew mss read “your” [masc. pl.].

²² sn Sacred poles dedicated to…Asherah. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, 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 (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], plural). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).