What's the problem with groves?
score:12
Sacred groves are a common feature of ancient pagan religion.
A particularly accessible Western example might be Oedipus at Colonus, which is the middle play in the Theban cycle of Sophocles (following Oedipus Rex and preceding Antigone).
A great deal of the action in Oedipus at Colonus takes place in a grove outside Colonus that is consecrated to the "Erinyes" (goddesses of vengeance).
It's also not uncommon in the legends of early-medieval Western saints for the saint to cut down a sacred tree in the presence of pagan clerics and dignitaries, in a sort of recapitulation of 1 Kings 18 -- e.g., Boniface and the Donar Oak.
Upvote:4
Yes. The original word Asherah referred to shrines to a fertility goddess, not to forests, groves, or trees in general. There's nothing wrong with having trees around, of course; this is just another example of God's repeated warnings against idolatry. Asherah was the consort of Baal, whose worshipers were always a thorn in the side of Israel, and the two were often worshiped together as male and female aspects of fertility worship. See Judges 6 for one example. And as the verses you cite show, cutting down asherah is always found in the context of doing away with idols and idol-worship.
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