supernatural · also Asherim · Asheroth
Asherah
אֲשֵׁרָה
Asherah, a Canaanite goddess, was worshipped by the Israelites through wooden poles or images, often leading them into idolatry.
- verses
- 40
- first named
- Exodus 34:13
- last named
- Micah 5:14
Description
Asherah in the text
Asherah was a Canaanite goddess whose worship was often associated with wooden poles or images. The Israelites were repeatedly warned against setting up Asherah poles or planting trees as idolatrous symbols near the altar of the Lord (Deu.16.21; Judges 6:25-30; 1Ki.14.15, 16:33; 2Ki.17.16). However, many Israelite kings and people disobeyed these commands and engaged in Asherah worship (1Ki.15.13, 18:19; 2Ki.13.6, 21:3, 7; 2Ch.15.16, 24:18, 33:3).
Several kings, such as Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah, sought to remove Asherah poles and images from the land as part of their religious reforms (2Ki.18.4, 23:4-7, 14-15; 2Ch.14.3, 17:6, 31:1, 34:3-4, 7). The prophets also condemned the worship of Asherah, associating it with idolatry and unfaithfulness to God (Isaiah 17:8, 27:9; Jeremiah 17:2; Micah 5:14).
The persistent presence of Asherah worship throughout Israel's history demonstrates the Israelites' struggle to remain faithful to the Lord and resist the influence of surrounding pagan cultures. The biblical accounts emphasize the importance of removing idolatrous symbols and practices and the need for ongoing spiritual reformation.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The pattern
Where Asherah is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
40 verses across 9 of 66 books; 57 write the name nowhere. Named in Exodus (1), Deuteronomy (3), Judges (5), 1 Kings (5), 2 Kings (11), 2 Chronicles (11), Isaiah (2), Jeremiah (1) and Micah (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 40, across 9 books.
Exodus1 verse
Deuteronomy3 verses
Judges5 verses
1 Kings5 verses
2 Kings11 verses
2 Chronicles11 verses
Isaiah2 verses
Jeremiah1 verse
Micah1 verse
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Sources