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"Grove", or Asherah?

Discussion in '2004 Archive' started by robycop3, Sep 7, 2004.

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  1. robycop3

    robycop3 Well-Known Member
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    Forty times in the KJV, the word 'asherah' is rendered "grove". This doesn't seem to be the best rendering, since Asherah is the specific name of a specific idol. True, Asherah & other idols were often worshipped in groves, either natural or shaped by man, but the first, and the only other place the word 'grove' appears in the KJV is in Gen.21:33, where the Hebrew is 'eshel', "tamarisk tree". (The ancients often planted then to become groves.)

    The word 'asherah' by itself doesn't suggest a grove...and in some places in the KJV where 'grove' is used, it appears quite ridiculous to say greve. Some examples are: 2Ki 21:7 And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house..."

    2Ki 23:6 "And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD..."

    While sometimes, "grove" appears to be a better rendering, to-wit:
    2 Chronicles 15:16 And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

    Couldn't the AV translators have been more precise in their renderings?
     
    #1 robycop3, Sep 7, 2004
  2. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Yes.

    HankD
     
    #2 HankD, Sep 7, 2004
  3. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
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    Yes. The asherah poles were phallic symbols around which licentious orgies and prostitution in the name of "worship" were performed. I think "groves" is a euphemism as these learned men in 1611 KNEW this and probably just didn't want to develop the purient aspect.

    Can't locate the issue, but BAR (Biblical Archeology Review) had a great issue many years back on the Asherah poles and worship.
     
    #3 Dr. Bob, Sep 8, 2004
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