In verses 13 and 14 the Lord condemns the objects used in pagan
worship. Three specific types of object are mentioned, idols and sacred stone
pillars in verse 13, and images of
the goddess Asherah in verse 14. Idols were images carved out of wood or
stone. Their use was forbidden in the Ten Commandments (Exo 20:4). Sacred stone pillars were frequently
used in Canaanite fertility religion to represent the male deity, and images of the goddess Asherah were
wooden poles which represented the female deity.
The people of Israel had been told to break down the pillars (Exo
23:24) and to cut down the images of Asherah (Exo 34:13), but they had never
destroyed all of them. These objects were not only symbols used in pagan
worship, but they also showed that the people of Israel had rejected their own
God. In order to make the nation pure again it was necessary to remove all such
evil things. Since the people had not done so, the Lord says that he himself
will do it. It is unlikely, of course that many languages will have terms which
exactly fit all of these different kinds of idols, but translators should at
least be able to describe them as images, stone pillars, and wooden poles which
the pagan peoples worshiped. (David J. Clark and Norm
Mundhenk, A Translator’s Handbook on the
Book of Micah [UBS Handbook Series; London: United Bible Societies, 1982),
221)
Finally in this religious indictment, sentence is passed on other
cultic objects which misrepresented Yahwism and dragged it down to the level of
pagan religions. The Asherim were
symbols of the mother-goddess Asherah, the wife of El, who was head of the
Canaanite pantheon. Over a century earlier Elijah had eradicated her cult in
the Northern Kingdom along with that of the Tyrian Baal, both propagated with
missionary zeal by the Phoenician Jezebel, daughter of the priest-king of Tyre
(1 K. 18:19). Driven out as a separate religion, the cult of Asherah crept back
insidiously to become a syncretistic part of Israel’s own religion and
presumably to provide Yahweh with a consort on the pattern of Canaanite
fertility religion. Whether her representation took the form of a sacred tree,
real or stylized as a pole, or an image in more human likeness is not clear.
But it was made of wood and fixed in the ground; hence the reference to rooting
out or uprooting is appropriate. Hezekiah chopped down an Asherah according to
2 K. 18:4, presumably one he found in the Jerusalem temple. (Leslie C.
Allen, The Books of Joel, Obediah, Jonah, and Micah [The New International
Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1976], 359)
[14] The verb “uproot” (nātaš) also appears in Amos 9:15, “I will plant them upon their
land, and they shall never again be plucked
up out of the land”; later it will have a more prominent use in the
Deuteronomic tradition and thus in Jeremiah, where it is just as often used of
God “uprooting” Israel from the land in the Babylonian exile (Deut 29:28 [27 mt];
1 Kgs 14:15; Jer 1:10; and the reverse in Jer 24:6; 31:28, 40).
The object of uprooting, however, is a much more vexed and difficult
term. Scholars are divided as to which occasions appear to be neutral, as
simply a sacred pole or object, and which occasions may be specific references
to objects associated with the Canaanite goddess Asherah. The debate warmed
considerably with the discovery of the pieces of pithoi (Gk. for “water jugs”) at Kuntillet ʿAjrûd (in the Sinai
desert), where a drawing and statement suggest ʾăšērâ as a female consort to YHWH. But others just as strongly
argue that it is simply a reference to a sacred object, a “pole,” in honor of
YHWH and not connected to the accompanying drawings that seem to portray a male
image and a female image, presumably deities to accompany the prayer written in
the clay piece.
One of the problems is the inconsistency of the use of the term ʾăšērâ. For example, Deut 16:21 speaks
of something wooden placed next to an altar dedicated to YHWH, while Judg 3:7
speaks of two proper names for deities in Canaanite practice: Baal and Asherah
(cf. 1 Kgs 18:19; 2 Kgs 23:4). Yet again Judg 6:25, reminding us of Deut 16:21,
speaks of a “sacred pole” next to an altar dedicated to Baal (cf. Judg 6:28,
30). During Josiah’s reform, we find a description of the removal of “the
asherah” (2 Kgs 23:6 njps), interpreted in the nrsv as “the image of Asherah.”
In the very next verse, there is a reference to making “veils” apparently
dedicated “to” Asherah. Most of these references are in the Historical Books,
with few references in the Prophets to this term (“sacred poles” in nrsv: Isa
17:8; 27:9; Jer 17:2; Mic 5:14 [13]).
Jeremiah (44:17–19, 25) mentions “the queen of heaven,” and this is
widely held to be Asherah, even though she is not named in this important
chapter. We are left with the general assumption that there was a Canaanite
deity named Asherah whose symbol seems to have been a wooden pole or “tree”
erected adjacent to an altar—either an altar for Baal or, in a practice
forbidden in the Deuteronomic law, an altar for YHWH.
The verb “to destroy” (šāmad)
has volatile overtones in the Hebrew text. As a term of exaggerated hyperbole,
it naturally has strong associations with military narratives. In fact,
however, it is used mainly in two contexts: ritual contexts in reference to the
destruction of pagan sites (often of “high places,” as in Lev 26:30; Num 33:52;
Hos 10:8) and military “destruction.”
When used for military destruction, it can be used both of nations
“destroyed” by God (or under God’s supervision: Deut 2:12, 21, 23; 7:23; 9:3;
Amos 2:9) and of Israel about to be “destroyed” (Deut 4:26; 7:4; 9:8, 14, 19,
20, 25; Ps 106:23; see the “curses” in Deut 28:20, 24, 45, 48, 51, 61). Not
surprisingly, it appears along with “ban/cursed to destruction” in narratives
of the “conquest” (Josh 7:12; 11:20). In the Historical Books, kings talk of
“destroying” rivals (1 Kgs 16:12; 2 Kgs 10:17). Taking the cue mostly from the
Deuteronomic traditions, then, the prophets take up this verb of destruction
mostly as threats to the Israelite people themselves (the “broom of
destruction” in Isa 14:23; Ezek 25:7) or to others (Jer 48:8, 42). The concept
of “total destruction” of enemies begins to enter into the later vocabulary of
apocalyptic as well, beginning with the late prophets (Hag 2:22; Zech 12:9).
Although the notion of specifically “destroying cities” is not as common, there
are two references that seem similar enough to perhaps have been inspired by
Micah’s use of the phrase here: Jer 4:7 and Ezek 35:4. (Daniel L.
Smith-Christopher, Micah: A Commentary [The Old Testament Library;
Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015], 184-85)
