Asherah

You've abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals.

Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

Okay, so this is the diagnosis.

Israel is suffering from a severe case of idolatry.

Where are they doing them? First place, the pasuk mentions, "al panai." The Radak understands this is a reference to in the Beit HaMikdash, in the very precincts where God's presence is most directly felt.

Then, "zovchim be-ganot." This refers to the fertility cult of Asherah, which is spoken of elsewhere in Tanakh as be-- and especially in Sefer Yermiyahu, as being, um, observed under every leafy tree.

And so here, "zovchim be-ganot," who sacrifice in the altar-- in the gardens.

The gardens are places where one would find leafy trees, um, and that's where the fertility cult r-rites are observed.

So in 2 Kings 23, verse 15 says, You have Josiah doing his thing and it says, moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, we just read about that, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place, he, that's Josiah, pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust.

He also burned the Asherah.

And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed who had predicted these things.

Interesting.

so you can see that people probably contains different theological voices produced across centuries and to your question of efficacy this is seemingly a subtler question there are stories of other religions apparent appearing capable of actually doing things with pharaoh's magicians being probably the most recognizable famous example exactly their their rods also turn into serpents it's just that aaron's rod swallows theirs So it seems like their power was, again, I'm like pulling from what I'm seeing from a little searching here, like real, but subordinate.

And a classic example here being that there's a story of Mount Carmel where Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal and Asherah, these local deities, Kenite deities.

And Elijah's practice is effective in rendering a divine sign and the others, at least, you know, it doesn't quite say what happens with the prophetesses of, prophets of Asherah.

And interestingly, Asherah has so many feminine, in his art and archeology, the consort of Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh.

And there's a rabbinic midrash that from Mount Carmel, you can see Miriam's well.

so there is some interesting like proto-feminist maybe some people say i'm overstating it but at a minimum like we're looking at these these feminine waters there in any case the ball sacrifice is not effective and um by the rabbinic period we do have like the proposition that there's one sovereign god and that is a given foundational kind of of judaism and the judaism i practice and i want rock to embody um but that's a very different thing from demystifying the universe right the universe in rabbinic judaism is still a place of a lot of mystery and stories of miracles that while being adjacent to science fiction as a genre, I think can really be read productively as magical realism and turning into texts, the ineffable and, you know, mysterious experiences that we have into, you know, stories of signs and wonders.

Then the king listened to them.

They forsook the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols.

Wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their guilt.

The Lord sent prophets to them to bring them back to him, and although they admonished them, they would not listen.

It should be noted that the pre-existing civilizations that I just mentioned accepted each other's gods and goddesses and didn't see it as a problem for them to have different ones.

And in fact, if you really look at it, Inanna, for example, in ancient Sumer, was the same as Hathor and Isis in Egypt, was the same as Astarte in Phoenician culture, was the same as Asherah and Canaan.

And so it was the same gods and goddesses that had different names based on the dialect of the people.

The Hebrews also did not believe sex was a sin, okay? They...

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is it you, you troubler of Israel? He answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.

Now, therefore, have all Israel assembled for me at Mount Carmel with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.