Bible Strands
2 Kings 17:10
They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The biblical narrator documents the Israelites' secret rebellion during the monarchy's decline, recording their systematic adoption of pagan worship practices across both fortified cities and rural landscapes.
The words — The text highlights וַ/יַּצּ֧בוּ (va/i.ya.Tzi.vu), meaning "they erected," and מַצֵּב֖וֹת (ma.tze.Vot), meaning "sacred pillars," describing the deliberate physical establishment of foreign cult objects.
The thread — This practice recurs in 1 Kings 14:23, is explicitly forbidden in Exodus 34:13, and is promised for future removal in Micah 5:14.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that decentralized, unmonitored idolatry directly provokes divine judgment and necessitates the complete dismantling of syncretistic worship sites.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 14:23 They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
- Micah 5:14 I will root out the Asherah poles from your midst and demolish your cities.
- Exodus 34:13 Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
- 2 Kings 16:4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Deuteronomy 12:2 Destroy 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.
- Deuteronomy 16:21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God,
- Isaiah 57:5 who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
- Leviticus 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.