They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
Parallel translations
- WEB and they set up for themselves pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill, and under every green tree;
- KJV And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
- NKJV They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree.
- NASB And they set up for themselves memorial stones and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
- NLT They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles at the top of every hill and under every green tree.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every hill and under every green tree. The land was filled with Canaanite-style idols.
Overview
Israel adopted the standing stones and Asherah symbols of Canaanite fertility religion, the very objects God commanded them to destroy. Placed on high hills and under leafy trees, these idols marked sites of false worship across the land. Their proliferation reveals how completely the nation had abandoned the worship of the one true God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Kgs 14:23They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
- Mic 5:14I will root out the Asherah poles from your midst and demolish your cities.
- Exod 34:13Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
- 2 Kgs 16:4And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Isa 57:5who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
- Deut 16:21Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God,
- Deut 12:2–3Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Lev 26:1“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
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Christ at the center
Amid the long decline toward exile, the promise to David's house refuses to die; the flickering lamp kept burning anticipates the coming King who will not fail or be cut off.
How 2 Kings 17:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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