1 Kings 14:15

The river] i.e. the Euphrates. Groves] RV 'Asherim' (pi. of Asherah), and so in 1 Kings 14:23 and elsewhere. These were poles used as religious emblems (cp. Isaiah 17:8), and were probably intended to imitate trees, which, from being endowed with life and growth, were in early ages thought to be the abodes of divine powers, and so were regarded as appropriate seats of worship: cp. 1 Kings 14:23. Though perhaps most commonly associated with Ashtoreth, the goddess of fertility and productiveness, they were not the exclusive symbols of any particular deity; and the Israelites were inclined to adopt them even in connexion with the worship of their own God, as may be gathered from the prohibition against planting 'an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord'(Deuteronomy 16:21 RV), and the fact that though Jehu restored in Israel the worship of the Lord, yet in the reign of his son Jehoahaz 'there remained the Asherah in Samaria' (2 Kings 13:6 RV).