Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 17:16

"And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal." — 2 Kings 17:16 (ASV)

Molten images. — 1 Kings 12:28. Literally, a casting.

A grove. — An Asherah (1 Kings 14:23; 1 Kings 16:33). Schlottmann writes: “That Ashera was only another name for the same supreme goddess (i.e., Ashtoreth) is at once shown by the parallelism of ‘Baal and Ashtaroth’ (Judges 2:13) with ‘Baal and Asherim’ (the plural of Ashera) in Judges 3:7.

In quite the same way Baal and Ashera stand side by side in Judges 6:28, 2 Kings 23:4; and in 1 Kings 18:19, the 450 prophets of the Baal and the 400 of the Ashera. Further, in 2 Chronicles 15:16 and 2 Chronicles 24:18, the Septuagint renders Ashera as Astarte; and in other passages Aquila, Symmachus, and the Peshito do the same thing.”

He then refers to 1 Kings 14:23, Isaiah 17:8, and Isaiah 27:9, and continues: “According to these and many other passages, Ashera was used as the designation of the commonest material representation of the goddess.

It consisted of a block of wood, of considerable size (Judges 6:26), and resembling a tree, as is shown by the expressions used in connection with it, such as ‘setting up,’ ‘planting,’ and ‘cutting down’ (2 Kings 17:10; Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 6:28; 2 Kings 18:4, etc.).

In Isaiah 27:9 the Septuagint actually renders tree; ‘and so the Peshito in Deuteronomy 6:21 and Micah 5:13.

Hence, we must not think of pillars like the Greek Hermae, but of a real trunk planted in the ground, rootless, but not branchless; for which purpose pines and evergreens were preferred.

The tree signifies, according to an ancient and widespread conception, nature, or the world, which in this case stands as goddess at the side of the Baal—the lord of the world. (Compare the Norse tree, Yggdrasil, and the Assyrian sacred tree.)

Hence, the Ashera was set up by the altar of Baal (Judges 6:28). .”

Schlottmann adds that Movers is wrong in making Astarte and Ashera two different goddesses, the former being “the stern, cruel virgin,” the latter, “the goddess who excites to pleasure;” and he justly observes that, as in the case of Baal, the same deity may be conceived under contrary aspects (Riehm’s Handworterbuch Bibl. Alterthums, pages 111–114).

For the Hebrew conception of Astarte, see Jeremiah 7:18 and Jeremiah 44:17 and following.

Kuenen, in Religion of Israel, volume 1, page 88 and following, agrees with Movers but hardly proves his case.

Worshipped all the host of heaven. — 2 Kings 21:3; compare 2 Kings 23:4.