Grove

"Grove" in the King James Version most frequently translates the Hebrew asherah (plural asherim), which refers not to a natural grove of trees but to a wooden image or sacred pole representing Asherah — the Canaanite goddess of fertility and consort of Baal. The association of Asherah worship with trees and high places led early translators to render the term as "grove," but modern translations consistently use "Asherah pole" or "Asherah image." These cult objects were planted or erected near altars on high places throughout Canaan, and Israel's repeated adoption of Asherah worship is one of the persistent targets of prophetic condemnation and covenantal prohibition (Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 16:21).

Gideon's first act of reform was to cut down his father's Asherah beside the altar of Baal (Judges 6:25–26). King Manasseh erected an Asherah in the temple itself (2 Kings 21:7) — among the most extreme acts of covenant violation recorded in the monarchy, reversed by Josiah's reform (2 Kings 23:4–6). The term occasionally does refer to a literal grove of trees: Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba (Genesis 21:33), and Samuel's annual judicial circuit included spots associated with ancient trees (1 Samuel 7:16–17). Context determines which meaning applies in each passage.