Deuteronomy 16:21
You do not plant an Asherah of any trees for yourself near the altar of your God YHWH, which you make for yourself,
Literal Standard Version
In The King James Version
In Context
22and you do not raise up any standing image for yourself which your God YHWH is hating.”
Cross References
Deuteronomy 7:5But thus you do to them: you break down their altars, and you shatter their standing pillars, and you cut down their Asherim, and you burn their carved images with fire.
1 Kings 14:15And YHWH has struck Israel as the reed is moved by the waters, and has plucked Israel from off this good ground that He gave to their fathers, and scattered them beyond the River, because that they made their Asherim, provoking YHWH to anger;
2 Kings 17:16And they forsake all the commands of their God YHWH, and make a molten image for themselves—two calves, and make an Asherah, and bow themselves to all the host of the heavens, and serve Ba‘al,
2 Kings 21:7And he sets the carved image of the Asherah that he made in the house of which YHWH said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I put My Name for all time;
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 16:19-22
18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any… Read the whole commentary →