Deu 16:21-22<\/span>. Against the Use of ’Asherim and Maeboth<\/p>\n 21<\/strong>. Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah<\/em> ] plant<\/em>, because the ’Asherah (see general note following) was either a mast or artificial tree.<\/p>\n of any kind of tree<\/em> ] The Heb. construction is not in the genitive but in apposition; translate therefore: an ’Asherah<\/em>, any tree<\/strong> or any timber<\/strong>.<\/p>\n beside the altar of the Lord thy God<\/em> ] No doubt, the Heb. may mean either the<\/em> ( one<\/em>), or any, altar<\/em> (for the latter see Exo 20:26<\/span>, where my altar<\/em> in the light of Exo 20:24<\/span> must mean any of my altars<\/em>). Yet the former meaning being the more natural, and there being no trace elsewhere in D of the permission of other altars after the settlement of Israel in Canaan was achieved, it is precarious to suppose (Steuernagel) that we have here the expression of a different school of deuteron. reform from that which appears in ch. 12: one viz. which permitted more than one sanctuary and sought only to secure the purity of worship at these.<\/p>\n 22<\/strong>. Neither shalt thou set thee up a pillar<\/em> ] raise for thyself a Maebah<\/em> (see general note following) or standing-stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n which the Lord thy God hateth<\/em> ] Similarly Deu 12:31<\/span>, but with the addition there of abomination<\/em>, which is wanting here but found in the next verse.<\/p>\n General Note on the ’Asherah and Maebah<\/p>\n Two symbols or inhabitations of deity erected in sanctuaries throughout the Semitic world: frequently combined in the O.T. as present in Canaanite sanctuaries, and at first erected also by Israel but afterwards forbidden to them.<\/p>\n 1<\/strong>. The ’Ashrah<\/em> (plur. ’Ashrim<\/em>, see Deu 12:3<\/span> and elsewhere, but ’Ashrth<\/em> 2Ch 19:3<\/span>; 2Ch 33:3<\/span>), artificial tree or mast set up like the maeboth<\/em> by the altars of Semitic sanctuaries, a work of man’s fingers<\/em> (Isa 17:8<\/span>: cp. 1Ki 14:15<\/span>; 1Ki 16:13<\/span>, 2Ki 21:3<\/span>), wooden (Deu 16:21<\/span>, Jdg 6:26<\/span>, the wood of the ’A<\/em>.; cp. the verbs used of it: plant<\/em>, Deu 16:21<\/span>, rise<\/em>, Isa 27:9<\/span>, pluck up<\/em>, Mic 5:14<\/span>, cut down<\/em>, Deu 7:5<\/span>, Jdg 6:25<\/span> f., Jdg 6:30<\/span>, 2Ki 18:4<\/span>; 2Ki 23:14<\/span>, 2Ch 14:2<\/span>, burn<\/em>, here, 2Ki 23:6<\/span>; 2Ki 23:15<\/span>, in distinction from the breaking<\/em> of the stone maebth<\/em>). Unlike the maebah<\/em> the ’Asherah<\/em> is never described as a sanctioned or tolerated part of Jehovah’s sanctuaries. There was one by the altar of the Ba‘al belonging to his father, which Gideon cut down (Jdg 6:25<\/span> ff.); Ahab made the<\/em> or an ’Asherah<\/em> for the altar of the Ba‘al in Samaria (1Ki 16:33<\/span>), which appears to have been left by Jehu when he burned the maeboth<\/em> there (2Ki 10:26<\/span> ff.; see however end of this note), for it still stood under Jehoahaz (2Ki 13:6<\/span>). The deuteronomic editor of Kings says that in Judah Rehoboam raised maeboth<\/em> and ’Asherim<\/em> on every high hill and under every spreading tree (1Ki 14:23<\/span>): Jehoshaphat is said to have removed them (2Ch 14:2<\/span>; 2Ch 17:6<\/span>; 2Ch 19:3<\/span>), but they were restored by Joash ( id.<\/em> Deu 24:18<\/span>). Their removal is stated as part of Hezekiah’s reforms (2Ki 18:4<\/span>), but Manasseh, besides building altars to the Ba‘al, made an ’Asherah ( id.<\/em> Deu 21:3<\/span>), and by the prophets they are counted among the idolatrous sins of Israel (Mic 5:14<\/span>, Jer 17:2<\/span>, Isa 27:9<\/span>). That they were dedicated to Jehovah is implied in the prohibition, Deu 16:21<\/span>. The command to cut them down in Exo 34:13<\/span> is a later insertion: there is no record of a law against them before D. Like the standing-stone the mast (or tree for which it stood) was frequently identified with the deity, and was probably the female counterpart to the stone. Several passages seem to imply that there was a goddess called ’Asherah ( prophets of the ’A<\/em>., 1Ki 18:19<\/span>, image of the ’A<\/em>., id.<\/em> Deu 15:13<\/span>, 2Ki 21:7<\/span>, vessels of the ’A., id<\/em>. Deu 23:4<\/span>, and even houses<\/em>, i.e. tents or deckings, id.<\/em> Deu 23:7<\/span>: cp. the veiled ‘Asherah below). Her existence has been denied by, among others, W. R. Smith ( Rel. Sem<\/em>. 171 f.). But his reason, that every altar, to whatever deity it belonged, had an ’Asherah is hardly sufficient to prove an exclusively generic meaning for the name. Recent Assyriology appears to put beyond doubt the name ’Asherah as that of a Canaanite goddess and to give good reasons for her identification with ’Ashtoreth (cp. Jdg 3:7<\/span>, 1Ki 18:19<\/span>). The Ass. name is Ashratu or Ashirtu, and in the Tell-el-Amarna letters we find a man’s name ‘Abd-’Ashratum, ‘the worshipper of ’Asherah.’<\/p>\n ‘The double meaning which ’Asherah has as “sacred pole” and as the name of the goddess (= ‘Ashtoreth) is now placed beyond doubt by the witness of the Tell-el-Amarna tablets (Ashirtu = Ishtar) and finds its explanation in a representation of the veiled Ishtar-Ashera, as a bust running into a pillar in the fashion of the Hermes, discovered by von Oppenheim at Ras el-‘Ain, the source of the Khabur’ (Winckler and Jensen, 3rd ed. of Schrader’s KAT<\/em> 276, see also deut 245, 248, 258, 421, 432 f.).<\/p>\n That the ’Asherah represented a female deity (in distinction from the male character of the maeboth) is perhaps the reason of the less tolerance which it received in Israel.<\/p>\n 2<\/strong>. The Maebah (thing set upright) standing-stone<\/em> (plural maeboth<\/em>, Deu 12:3<\/span>), such as that raised by Jacob as the witness of his bargain with Laban (Gen 31:49<\/span>; Gen 31:51<\/span>) and at Rachel’s grave ( id.<\/em> Gen 35:20<\/span>), or by Absalom in his own memory (2Sa 18:18<\/span>); but usually of the large monoliths (R.V. marg. obelisks<\/em>) beside the altars of Semitic shrines. They were regarded as the habitation of a deity (see Gen 28:22<\/span> below), but in the sense of being his embodiment; and so in ritual ‘spoken of and treated as the God himself’ (W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem<\/em>. 85); ‘in them one saw the deity present at the altar, and to them the worshippers directed their hands and their prayers’ (Nowack, Hebr. Arch<\/em>. ii. 18). That they stood in Canaanite sanctuaries is frequently stated in the O.T. (here, Deu 7:5<\/span>, Exo 23:24<\/span>; and for the house of the Ba‘al in Samaria, 2Ki 10:26<\/span> f.).<\/p>\n Specimens were recently discovered at Gezer by Mr R. A. S. Macalister in one high place a row of 10, divided into 7 and 3, of which only the stumps of two remain, and the rest vary in height from 5 ft 5 ins. to 10 ft 6 ins., the largest being 4 ft 7 ins. broad by 2 ft 6 ins. thick, and in another high place a row of 4 with the stump of a fifth; at Ta‘anak by Prof. Sellin two rows of 5 each, with a pair at a little distance; and at Megiddo (Tell-el-Mutesellim) by Dr Schumacher one pair. In the high-place at Petra there are 2 great Maeboth 6 metres high, hewn out of the living rock. Those at Gezer are roughly hewn from (with one exception) the local rock, the upper end of one worked to a sharp point, and the slopes ‘polished by having been kissed, anointed, rubbed or otherwise handled,’ and another ‘carefully shaped to a rounded form’: both probably phallic ( PEF. Quart. Statement<\/em>, 1903, 25 ff.; Bible Side-lights from Gezer<\/em>, 57 ff.).<\/p>\n In the earliest times maeboth<\/em> were erected by the Hebrews: by Jacob (Gen 28:18<\/span>; Gen 28:22<\/span> E, Gen 35:14<\/span> f. J) in memory of God’s appearance to him, and to be<\/em> God’s-house = Beth-el (cp. Gk and , ‘animated stone,’ through the Phoenician). Because of the verb we should also read maebah<\/em>, for the mizbea, altar<\/em>, which Jacob set up<\/em> at Shechem and called God, the God of Israel (Gen 33:20<\/span>, E). According to E (to whom most of the O.T. notices of maeboth are due) Moses put up 12 with the altar which he built on oreb 1 [138] . Hosea (Hos 3:4<\/span>, Hos 10:1<\/span>) implies that maebth<\/em> were as regular parts of Jehovah’s sanctuaries in N. Israel as altars and sacrifices 2 [139] . With such a recognition of the maeboth<\/em> in the worship of Jehovah the command in Hos 12:3<\/span> to destroy the maeboth<\/em> of the Canaanite sanctuaries is of course compatible. But the same cannot be said of the injunction in Deu 16:22<\/span> not to set up a maebah<\/em> beside the altar of Jehovah, which Jehovah thy God hateth<\/em> (cp. Mic 5:13<\/span>). This is another of the many marks that the deuteron. legislation is later than Hosea. It is possible, however, that there had never been a maebah in the Temple of Jerusalem. In 2Ki 10:26<\/span> f. Jehu is said to have burned the maeboth<\/em> in the house of the Ba‘al in Samaria, but because of the verb some read instead the ’Asherah<\/em>. On the whole subject see especially W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem<\/em>., 1st ed., 186 ff., 437 f.; G. F. Moore, ‘Massebah’ in EB.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n [138] <\/em> We read also of great stones<\/em> set up by Joshua in Jehovah’s sanctuary at Shechem as a witness against the people (Jos 24:26<\/span> E) and at Gilgal as memorials of the passage of Jordan ( id<\/em>. Jos 4:5<\/span>), at Mizpeh and Gibeon (1Sa 7:12<\/span>; 2Sa 20:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n [139] According to Isa 19:19<\/span>, a maebah<\/em> shall be erected in Egypt as a symbol of her people’s acknowledgement of Jehovah; but the date of this prediction is uncertain; and the writer may be speaking metaphorically. The two bronze columns Yakin and Bo‘az (1Ki 7:21<\/span>) were probably from their names ‘He foundeth’ and ‘In him is strength’ symbols of the Deity, but they did not stand in the inner sanctuary. W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem<\/em>. 191 n<\/em>. and 468, takes them as altar-pillars with hearths on their tops.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deu 16:21<\/span> to Deu 17:7<\/span>. Isolated Group of Laws on Worship<\/p>\n This group of laws against heathen symbols and blemished sacrifices and the worship of other gods all of them abominations to, or hated by, Jehovah is quite isolated, between two sets of laws on judicial procedure, Deu 16:18-20<\/span> and Deu 17:8<\/span> ff.; and we have seen reasons (above p. 173) for supposing that the whole group originally stood between Deu 12:29-31<\/span> and Deu 13:1-18<\/span>. The notes below will show that there are both similarities and dissimilarities between the two separated sections. The reason which Steuernagel gives for supposing that Deu 16:21<\/span> is by another author than that of ch. 12, with a different aim of reform viz. because he speaks only of an altar<\/em> and does not use the formulas found in 12 for the One Altar<\/em> is not convincing. With regard to this and the other dissimilarities of the present section from Deu 12:29<\/span> to Deu 13:18<\/span> it must be remembered that within the latter there are also dissimilarities. Throughout the form of address is in the Sg.: there are some editorial additions.<\/p>\n Deu 16:21-22<\/span><\/p>\n Thou shalt not plant thee a grove.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Idolatry forbidden<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>By its prevalence. In some form or other it is the most popular religion in the world. Men bow down to the idols of luxury, ambition, pleasure, and avarice. For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god (Mic 4:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>By its use. We naturally forsake God and cling to sin. Evil inclination leads to wrong choice, and men choose darkness rather than light.<\/p>\n Neither shalt thou set up any image<\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Images forbidden<\/strong><\/p>\n Thus imagery is forbidden–even religious imitation and attempted reproduction of things Divine and inexpressible. We are prone to do something to show our handiwork in Gods sanctuary; it pleases us to try to add something to the circle; it delights us to run one rim of gilt around the refined gold which burns with the image and superscription of God. We are told not to interfere; we must keep our hands off everything. We must learn to stand still; sometimes to do everything by doing nothing; and we must learn to rebuke our inventive faculty and become learned in the utterance of simple prayer. God will have His altar untouched: He will have human attention undistracted by any human devices. The altar is to stand alone in its simple dignity–most adorned when unadorned. There must be no attempt to link true religion and false religion, inspired worship and idolatrous worship, groves humanly planted and altars Divinely built. The Lord will have a time for Himself, and place for Himself, a gift for Himself, an altar for Himself. Why for Himself? Because He is the Lord, and because He means to train the human mind and heart without distraction towards the highest sublimity of law. Who will not set up his reason against the altar, and delight because his religion is rational?–as well hold up a candle to the sun, because all fire is of the same quality; because there is but one fire in the universe, and that is God. The sun says, Thou shalt not light a candle in my presence. We do it, but the candle is literally of no service in the presence of the midday sun. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world–the Sun of the great firmament of the soul–and He alone can light the space that is to be illumined. Who will not throw the little flower of self-approval upon the altar, saying, I am not as other men: I fast, I pay tithes, I do not practise extortion: I am not as the publicans are? The Lord has forbidden all groves and all images and all distractions. Only one man is permitted near the altar; only one soul is heard in heaven. His name?–the broken-hearted sinner! (J. Parker, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verse 21<\/span>. Thou shalt not plant thee a grove, &c.<\/B><\/I>] We have already seen that groves<\/I> were planted about idol temples for the purpose of the obscene worship performed in them. (See Clarke on <\/span>De 12:3<\/span><\/span>.) On this account God would have no groves or thickets about his altar, that there might be no room for suspicion that any thing contrary to the strictest purity was transacted there. Every part of the Divine worship was publicly<\/I> performed, for the purpose of general edification.<\/P><\/p>\n Because this was the practice of idolaters, 1Ki 15:13<\/span>, and might be an occasion of reviving idolatry. See Jdg 3:7<\/span>; 1Ki 14:23<\/span>; 1Ki 16:33<\/span>; 18:19<\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n 21. Thou shalt not plant thee agrove<\/B>A grove has in Scripture a variety of significationsagroup of overshadowing trees, or a grove adorned with altarsdedicated to a particular deity, or a wooden image in a grove(Jdg 6:25<\/span>; 2Ki 23:4-6<\/span>).They might be placed near the earthen and temporary altars erected inthe wilderness, but they could not exist either at the tabernacle ortemples. They were places, which, with their usual accompaniments,presented strong allurements to idolatry; and therefore theIsraelites were prohibited from planting them.<\/P><\/p>\n Thou shall not plant thee a grove of any trees<\/strong>,…. Of any sort of trees, as oaks or any other; not but that it was lawful to plant trees and groves of them, but not for a religious or idolatrous use: particularly<\/p>\n near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee<\/strong>; as the Heathens did near their altars, lest it should be thought to be done for a like superstitious and idolatrous use; which evil the Jews sometimes fell into in the times of wicked reigns, and which their good and pious kings removed and destroyed; see 2Ki 18:4<\/span> and Hecataeus b, an Heathen historian, relates of the city of Jerusalem, that there were there no image, nor plantation, nor grove, nor any such thing.<\/p>\n b Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 4. p. 408.<\/p>\n “ Thou shalt not plant thee as asherah any wood beside the altar of Jehovah<\/em>.” , to plant, used figuratively, to plant up or erect, as in Ecc 12:11<\/span>; Dan 11:25<\/span>; cf. Isa 51:16<\/span>. Asherah<\/em>, the symbol of Astarte<\/em> (see at Exo 34:13<\/span>), cannot mean either a green tree or a grove (as Movers, Relig. der Phnizier, <\/em> p. 572, supposes), for the simple reason that in other passages we find the words , make (1Ki 14:15<\/span>; 1Ki 16:33<\/span>; 2Ki 17:16<\/span>; 2Ki 21:3<\/span>; 2Ch 33:3<\/span>), or , set up ( 2Ki 17:10<\/span>), , stand up (2Ch 33:19<\/span>), and , build (1Ki 14:23<\/span>), used to denote the erection of an asherah<\/em>, not one of which is at all suitable to a tree or grove. But what is quite decisive is the fact that in 1Ki 14:23<\/span>; 2Ki 17:10<\/span>; Jer 17:2<\/span>, the asherah<\/em> is spoken of as being set up under, or by the side of, the green tree. This idol generally consisted of a wooden column; and a favourite place for setting it up was by the side of the altars of Baal.<\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>Idolatry is enticing. This on many accounts.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Idolatry is treason against God. God is the sum of all moral qualities, the proprietor of all resources, and the giver of all existences. What more rational than to worship Him? Nothing belies God nor degrades man like the worship of images and statues.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Idolatry must be utterly forsakes. We must neither join the worshippers nor sanction the worship. Plant no grove of trees, for truth loves light and reproves darkness. (J. Wolfendale.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n