Asherah

"And pl. Asherim in Revised Version, instead of "grove" and" groves of the Authorized Version. This was the name of a "sensual Canaanitish goddess Astarte, the feminine of the" Assyrian Ishtar. Its symbol was the stem of a tree deprived of "its boughs, and rudely shaped into an image, and planted in the" "ground. Such religious symbols ("groves") are frequently alluded" to in Scripture (Ex. 34:13; Judg. 6:25; 2 Kings 23:6; 1 Kings "16:33, etc.). These images were also sometimes made of silver or" "of carved stone (2 Kings 21:7; "the graven image of Asherah," R.V.). (See [32]GROVE [1].).