Deuteronomy 16:21

"Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Jehovah thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither shalt thou set up a pillar; which Jehovah thy God hateth."

"An Asherah ..." (Deuteronomy 16:21). "She was a false deity whose name was often mistranslated in the KJV, following the Septuagint (LXX) "groves." She was the goddess of Tyre, the bride of Anu (heaven), the consort of El, and the mother of 70 gods, including Baal. She was worshipped with animal sacrifices."[16] In this light, therefore, "plant thee" does not refer to the planting of a tree in an ordinary sense, but means to install, set up, arrange. Many of the old commentators thought that the Septuagint (LXX) was correct here, as did Adam Clarke:

"The groves were planted around idol temples for the purposes of the obscene worship performed in them. On this account, God would have no groves or thickets about his altar, that there might be no room for suspicion that anything contrary to the strictest purity was transacted there.[17]

We have included Clarke's view here despite the opinion so firmly stated in the Encyclopedias. One thing that favors Clarke's view here is the use of the word "plant," allegedly meaning, "to set up." However, the sacred author knew that word, using it in the very next sentence, and the choice of another word (plant) in connection with the Asherah leaves some uncertainty as to what exactly is meant. After all, the Septuagint (LXX) could be correct here.

"A pillar ..." (Deuteronomy 16:22). A pillar was a column of wood or of stone, or a carved object of veneration, such as a statue or a device resembling a totem pole, installed as an object of worship. It is not usually mentioned, but it is certain that some of these "pillars" were phallic symbols of a very repulsive kind.

Now and then one encounters a complaint that Deuteronomy 16:18-22 "do not fit in" to the chapter on the three great festivals! Well, so what? Some of the commentators seem never to have heard about "a shotgun sermon," and that is certainly the kind that Moses delivered on this occasion. Incidentally, that is a sure mark of its authenticity. If the priests of any particular era had done these chapters, we may be certain that they would have been organized in a far different manner from that encountered in this Farewell Address by the Great Lawgiver of Israel.