brake down the [1]pillars, and hewed down the Asherim; 4and commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land was quiet,
of reform and must surely have been carried out by any king with a claim to piety. See also the note on xv. 17.
the pillars] LXX. τὰς στήλας. The "pillar" or "obelisk," Heb. Maṣṣēbāh, was a monolith standing by an altar as a symbol of the god worshipped at the altar. In later days an image took the place of the pillar, i.e. the mere symbol was succeeded by the likeness of the god. (W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites2, pp. 203 ff., and for illustrations of those recently discovered at Gezer see Macalister, Bible Side-lights, or Driver, Modern Research as illustrating the Bible, p. 63.)
and hewed down the Asherim] An Ashērah (pi. Ashērim and Ashēroth) was a wooden pole planted beside an altar as the symbol of a deity. It appears to have been a survival of tree-worship, as the Maṣṣēbāh was a survival of stone-worship. The Ashērah of itself did not represent any particular deity, but it could be carved to bear the symbol of any special god or goddess, e.g. of Ashtarte. (W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites2, pp. 186 ff.) Probably the term Ashērah was used in reference to the living sacred trees, which are still common in Palestine: see the present writer's edition of the Mishna tractate, 'Aboda Zara, pp. 60 f.
5. the sun-images] Cp. xxxiv. 4; Is. xvii. 8, xxvii. 9. The Heb. word ("ḥamman") is of uncertain meaning and the supposed connection with heat or the sun is unsatisfactory. On the whole the evidence points to the conclusion that the "ḥamman" was a stone pillar associated with the altar, and much the same as the "Maṣṣēbāh," the difference perhaps being that the former was artificially shaped, the latter was of natural stone (see art. Baal in Hastings' Dict. of Religion and Ethics, pp. 287, 288).
6—8. Defensive Measures of Asa.
From xvi. 1—6 = 1 Kin. xv. 17—22, it appears that there was a strong and probably a reliable tradition ascribing to Asa activity in building defensive townships in Judah. It is likely that the present verses with their vague reference to strongly built cities with no mention of their number or names are only an expansion of the more precise references in xvi. 6. The Chronicler has assigned the narrative given in xvi. 1—6 (the war with Baasha) to the close of Asa's reign (for reasons noted under xvi. 1), and he obviously wanted something to occupy the ten years of peace with which—according to his story—the reign of Asa opened. This is conveniently found in a general allusion to building and fortification.
- ↑ Or, obelisks
