2 Raja-raja 21:7

21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home. ¹ 

2 Raja-raja 23:6-7

23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ²  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ³  23:7 He tore down the quarters ⁴  of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines ⁵  for Asherah.

[21:7]  ¹ tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”

[23:6]  ² tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”

[23:6]  ³ tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”

[23:6]  tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.

[23:7]  ⁴ tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”

[23:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.