Lexicon :: Strong's H842 - 'ăšērâ

“You shall not plant for yourself an [fn]Asherah of any kind of tree or wood beside the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make.

And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the [fn]Asheroth.

Now on that same night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down [fn]the Asherah that is beside it;

Early the next morning when the men of the city got up, they discovered that the altar of Baal was torn down, and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built.

“The LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River, because they have made their [fn]Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger.

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, for [the goddess] Asherah, and for all the [starry] host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel [where Israel’s idolatry began].

He also removed Maacah, King Asa’s mother, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa cut down her idol, crushed it, and burned it at the Brook Kidron.

Now when all of this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and smashed the [pagan] pillars (obelisks, memorial stones) in pieces, cut down the Asherim (wooden symbols of a female deity), and tore down the high places and the altars [of idolatry] throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the sons (descendants) of Israel returned to their own cities, each to his own property.

And he will not have regard for the [idolatrous] altars, the work of his hands,

Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,

Neither the Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah) nor the incense altars.

Therefore through this the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of Jacob (Israel) will be atoned for and forgiven;

And this will be [fn]the full price [that God requires] for taking away his sin:

When Israel makes all the stones of the [pagan] altars like crushed chalk stones;

When the Asherim and the incense altars will not stand.

As they remember their children,

So they remember [in detail] their [pagan] altars and their [fn]Asherim

Beside green trees on the high hills.

“I will root out your Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah) from among you

And destroy your cities [which are the centers of pagan worship].