Both a GODDESS and the WOODEN OBJECT that stood for her — which is why the Hebrew can say ‘their asherim’ in the plural and mean things you can chop down. Asherah is a major deity of the Canaanite and wider West Semitic world, consort of El in the Ugaritic texts; the cult object named after her was a pole, or a stylised tree, set up beside an altar. Deuteronomy 7:5 orders them hewn down, repeating Exodus 34:13 (already on these pages) almost word for word. ⚠ Three of the thirteen versions this project follows turn her into ordinary woodland — the KJV and the Geneva Bible read ‘their groves’ and the Douay-Rheims follows the Vulgate’s lucos — which erases a named goddess from a verse that is specifically about named gods. ⭐ The Reina-Valera line shows the correction happening: the 1909 edition reads «sus bosques», woods, and the RV60 restores «sus imágenes de Asera». → first discussed at Deut 7:5