Verse 15
15. Smite Israel… root up Israel… scatter them beyond the river Here is the first positive announcement of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles as a punishment of Israel’s sins. Already, in earlier times, had a rooting up and scattering of the people been threatened in case of disobedience, (Deuteronomy 28:63; Deuteronomy 29:27; Joshua 23:16,) but Ahijah is the first of that long line of prophets that hold up exile beyond the river Euphrates as a certainly coming woe.
Groves Thus our version, after the Septuagint and Vulgate, renders אשׁרה . Other versions render it, a wooden pillar or a tree. The word, however, is the proper name of a heathen goddess, Asherah. Compare Judges 3:7; and 1 Kings 18:19. It is another form for Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians. Asherah was their female, as Baal was their male divinity. In the plural, as here, and often elsewhere, it seems to be used in the more general sense of idols, or images of false gods, and may well be rendered simply idols; that is, the image-pillars of Asherah.
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