“Asherah was the Hebrew name of a Canaanite goddess, the mother of seventy gods. She appears in the Ras Shamra literature as well as in the Amarna letters. When not the name of a deity, Asherah refers to a wooden pole which stood at Canaanite places of worship (Exodus 34:13) and was regarded as the wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah, typifying fertility. The word is used in the Bible in a fluid manner, at times denoting the Canaanite fertility goddess herself, or her wooden image, or the tree or pole used as her symbol.”¹