Judges 3:7

did that which was evil See Judges 2:11 n.; forgat, cf. Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 8:11 etc.; 1 Samuel 12:9; Hosea 2:13; Jeremiah 3:21.

the Baalim and the Asheroth For the Baalimsee Judges 2:13 n.The word rendered grovesby AV. (from the LXX ἄλσος, Vulgate lucus) is in Hebr. ashçroth(only here and 2 Chronicles 19:3; 2 Chronicles 33:3), usually ashçrim, plur. of ashçrahwhich denotes a wooden pole planted (Deuteronomy 16:21), or set up (2 Kings 17:10), beside an altar, and venerated as a sacred symbol. It was a characteristic feature of the Canaanite sanctuaries, and from them it was adopted by the Israelites; thus at Ophrah an ashçrahstood by the altar of Baal (Judges 6:25), at Samaria, Beth-el, Jerusalem by the altar of Jehovah (2 Kings 13:6; 2 Kings 23:6; 2 Kings 23:15; cf. Deuteronomy 16:21 f.). It seems to have been a general symbol for deity. How it came to have this significance is disputed; some regard the sacred pole as a substitute for a tree and a relic of primitive tree-worship; others think that the name meant originally a sign-post, marking the precincts of the sanctuary, cf. Assyr. ashirtu-sanctuary," -temple." Here, however, and in a few other passages, ashçrah, like -Ashtoreth elsewhere (e.g. Judges 2:13), is combined with Baal, and was servedapparently as a divinity; cf. 2 Kings 23:4 and 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 21:7. Was ashçrah, then, a goddess, confused with -Ashtoreth and sometimes put in her place 1 [26] ? From outside the O.T. we find undoubted evidence of a goddess Ashçrah, worshipped by the Babylonians in the remote period of Ḫammurabi (c. 2130 b.c.), and of Western or Canaanite origin; while the pr. name Abd-ashirta-servant of Ashçrah," which occurs frequently in the Amarna letters, implies her cult in Canaan in the xv cent. b.c. 2 [27] Still more decisive is the express mention of her name in the phrase -the finger of Ashirat," from one of the cuneiform tablets found at Taanach (Driver, Schweich Lects., p. 82). The goddess Ashratum, i.e. -the kindly," -the gracious," is simply the fem. of the god Ashur, sometimes written Ashir. In S. Arabia we meet with Athîrat, the wife of the moon-god; in N. Arabia (Têma) the name was pronounced Ashîra3 [28]

[26] The confusion goes much further in the Versions, e.g. Vulg. here has Astaroth; but it is in no way due to any similarity in the names, which are quite distinct.

[27] The inscr. of Ḫammurabi which mentions Ash-ra-tum, -the bride of the king of heaven," is given by Hommel, Aufsätze u. Abhandlungenii. 211 f. In the Amarna letters the pr. name alluded to is once written Ab-di-ash-ta-[ar -ti, i.e. -servant of Ishtar," shewing how early the confusion between Ashçrah and -Ashtoreth began; see also Zimmern, Keilinschr. u. d. A. T.3 432 ff.

[28] For Athîratin Minaean inscrr. see Hommel l.c. 206 ff., Expos. Timesxi. (1899) 127; for the Aramaic inscr. of Têma see NSI.195 ff. In the obscure expression -Ashtart in the ashçrah" the name occurs once in Phoenician, inscr. of Ma-sûb (NSI.50). On some seals and gems, partly of Assyr.-Babyl., partly of Phoen. origin, an altar or a sacred tree is represented with what may be intended for a pole (or maṣṣçbah-pillar") on either side.

. The bearing of this evidence upon the usage of the O.T. is not easy to make out; there was a goddess Ashçrah, though in the O.T. the name is probably not to be understood in this sense. At any rate the goddess never had a very distinct existence; in Babylonia she was overshadowed by Ishtar; in Canaan, at a later epoch, she was confused with, or absorbed into, the great Canaanite goddess -Ashtoreth, and survived merely in the name of the sacred pole, usually a general symbol for deity, but occasionally, as here, regarded as itself divine and worshipped. In this way, perhaps, we may do justice to all the facts.