1 Kings 14:23

23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

1 Kings 14:23 in Other Translations

23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

23 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

23 For they also built for themselves pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

23 They built Asherah sex-and-religion shrines and set up sacred stones all over the place - on hills, under trees, wherever you looked.

23 They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;

1 Kings 14:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 14:23

For they also built them high places
Which, though allowed of, or at least connived at, before the temple was built, and when the tabernacle was unfixed, yet afterwards unlawful; and the tribe of Judah could have no excuse for them, who had the temple in their tribe:

and images;
contrary to the express command of God, ( Exodus 20:4 ) ,

and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree;
that is, set up idols, and temples for idols, amidst groves of trees, and under all green trees; as was the custom of the Heathens, who sacrificed on the heights of hills and tops of mountains, as was particularly the custom of the Persians, as both Herodotus ^F13 and Xenophon ^F14 relate; and with the Getae, a people in Thrace, was a mountain they reckoned sacred {o}.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 131.
F14 Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 45.
F15 Strabo Geograph. l. 7. p. 206.

1 Kings 14:23 In-Context

21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.

22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done.

23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

24 There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 23:24; Deuteronomy 16:22; 2 Kings 17:9-10; Ezekiel 16:24-25; Hosea 10:1
• 2. S Deuteronomy 12:3
• 3. S Deuteronomy 12:2; Isaiah 57:5; Ezekiel 6:13