Asherah

Uh-shihr´uh

A Canaanite goddess, the wife of El according to Ugaritic tradition, but the consort of Baal in Palestine; she is sometimes identified with Anat or Astarte. Asherah also refers to a cult object (carved from wood or formed as a pole) thought to represent the goddess. The Baal temple at Samaria had an asherah (1Kgs 16:33), and they were, in general, common in places of worship in ancient Israel (1Kgs 14:23; 2Kgs 18:4). Both the cult of the goddess and the use of the cultic object are persistently opposed in Israel’s literature (Mic 5:12-13; Deut 16:21).