So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life.

Make two golden cherubim. You must make them by hammering them out of the two ends of the [ark] cover. Make one cherub out of one end [side], and one cherub out of the other end [side]. From the [same piece of gold as] the cover itself, you shall make the cherubim on its two ends [sides]. The cherubim shall spread their wings upward, sheltering the cover with their wings, and the cherubim shall face one another. Their faces shall be [inclined] toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and place the Testimony in the ark that I will give you. I will set [prepare] My meetings [Word] with you there, and I will speak with you from above the cover, from between the cherubim that are on the Ark of the Testimony. All that which I will command you concerning the B’nei Yisrael.

Don’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather sticks, the fathers build the fire, and the mothers knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour libations to other gods, to vex Me.

He brought out the [image of] Asherah from the House of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and burned it in the Kidron Valley; he beat it to dust and scattered its dust over the burial ground of the common people.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did what was displeasing to the LORD, following the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal and made a sacred post, as King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshiped them, and he built altars for them in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “I will establish My name in Jerusalem.” He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD. He consigned his son to the fire; he practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted ghosts and familiar spirits; he did much that was displeasing to the LORD, to vex Him. The sculptured image of Asherah that he made he placed in the House concerning which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My name forever.

He said: The LORD came from Sinai; He shone upon them from Seir; He appeared from Mount Paran, And approached from Ribeboth-kodesh, Lightning flashing at them from His right. Lover, indeed, of the people, Their hallowed are all in Your hand. They followed in Your steps, Accepting Your pronouncements,

In the twentieth year of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. Asa did what was pleasing to the LORD, as his father David had done. He expelled the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all the idols that his ancestors had made. He also deposed his mother Maacah from the rank of queen mother, because she had made an abominable thing for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa cut down her abominable thing and burnt it in the Wadi Kidron.

Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

For you must not prostrate yourselves to another god [false gods of the peoples], because Adonoy—Jealous is His Name—He is a Jealous Almighty [God].

The priests of the shrines, however, did not ascend the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread along with their kinsmen.

And Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

He brought out the [image of] Asherah from the House of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and burned it in the Kidron Valley; he beat it to dust and scattered its dust over the burial ground of the common people. He tore down the cubicles of the male prostitutes in the House of the LORD, at the place where the women wove coverings for Asherah.