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Saturday, August 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

1 Kings 14:23

They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Groves;   High Places;   Israel, Prophecies Concerning;   Mountain;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Groves;   High Places;   Kings;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Gardens;   Rehoboam;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Asherah, asherim;   Baal;   Prostitution;   Rehoboam;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Ethics;   Gods and Goddesses, Pagan;   Kings, First and Second, Theology of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Amos;   Baal (1);   Grove;   Idol;   Jerusalem;   Rehoboam;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Asherah;   Fertility Cult;   Gods, Pagan;   Rehoboam;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Abijah;   Asherah;   Pillar;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Grove;   Rehoboam ;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Abi'jah;   Idolatry,;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Babylonish Captivity, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Apostasy;   Color;   High Place;   Hill;   Idolatry;   Obelisk;   Pillar;   Rehoboam;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Ashtoreth;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ammon, Ammonites;   Groves and Sacred Trees;   Pillar;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;
Hebrew Names Version
For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;
King James Version
For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
English Standard Version
For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
New Century Version
The people built stone pillars and places to worship gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree.
New English Translation
They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
Amplified Bible
For they also built for themselves high places [to worship idols] and sacred pillars and Asherim [for the goddess Asherah]. These were on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree.
New American Standard Bible
For they, too, built for themselves high places, memorial stones, and Asherim on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For they also made them hie places, and images, and groues on euery hie hill, and vnder euery greene tree.
Legacy Standard Bible
They also built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every green tree.
Contemporary English Version
They also built their own local shrines and stone images of foreign gods, and they set up sacred poles for worshiping the goddess Asherah on every hill and in the shade of large trees.
Complete Jewish Bible
For they erected high places, standing-stones and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
Darby Translation
And they also built for themselves high places, and columns, and Asherahs on every high hill and under every green tree;
Easy-to-Read Version
They built high places, memorial stones, and sacred poles. They built them on every high hill and under every green tree.
George Lamsa Translation
For they also built for themselves high places and statues and idols on every high hill and under every green tree.
Lexham English Bible
They also built for themselves high places and stone pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
Literal Translation
And they built, they also, high places for themselves, and standing pillars, and Asherahs on every high hill, and under every green tree.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for they likewyse buylded them hye places, pilers, and groues vpo euery hye hill, and amonge all grene trees.
American Standard Version
For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;
Bible in Basic English
For they made high places and upright stones and wood pillars on every high hill and under every green tree;
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For they also made them hie places, images, and groues on euery hie hill, and vnder euery thicke tree.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every leafy tree;
King James Version (1611)
For they also built them high places, and images, and groues on euery high hill, and vnder euery greene tree.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And they built for themselves high places, and pillars, and planted groves on every high hill, and under every shady tree.
English Revised Version
For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;
Berean Standard Bible
They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For also thei bildiden to hem silf auters, and ymagis, and wodis, on eche hiy hil, and vndur ech tree ful of bowis.
Young's Literal Translation
And they build -- also they -- for themselves high places, and standing-pillars, and shrines, on every high height, and under every green tree;
Update Bible Version
For they also built themselves high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;
Webster's Bible Translation
For they also built for themselves high places, and images and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
World English Bible
For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;
New King James Version
For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree.
New Living Translation
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.
New Life Bible
For they built for themselves high places, holy objects and false gods on every high hill and under every green tree.
New Revised Standard
For they also built for themselves high places, pillars, and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, they also, built for themselves high places and pillars, and Sacred Stems, - upon every high hill, and under every green tree.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For they also built them altars, and statues, and groves, upon every high hill, and under every green tree:
Revised Standard Version
For they also built for themselves high places, and pillars, and Ashe'rim on every high hill and under every green tree;
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For they also built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree.

Contextual Overview

21 Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon. 22 The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done. 23 They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees. 24 Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practiced all the shameful things done by the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country. 25 In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He took away all the treasures in the Temple and in the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made. 27 To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates. 28 Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom. 29 Everything else that King Rehoboam did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. 30 During all this time Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

built: 1 Kings 3:2, Deuteronomy 12:2, Isaiah 57:5, Ezekiel 16:24, Ezekiel 16:25, Ezekiel 20:28, Ezekiel 20:29

images: or, standing images, or statues, Leviticus 26:1

groves: Micah 5:14, Deuteronomy 12:2, 2 Kings 17:9, 2 Kings 17:10, 2 Kings 21:3-7, 2 Chronicles 28:4, Jeremiah 17:2

under every: Isaiah 57:5, Jeremiah 3:13

Reciprocal: Leviticus 17:5 - in the open 1 Kings 14:15 - provoking 1 Kings 15:12 - all the idols 1 Kings 20:23 - Their gods 1 Kings 22:43 - the high 2 Kings 10:26 - images 2 Kings 16:4 - on the hills 2 Kings 17:16 - a grove 2 Kings 17:19 - Also Judah 2 Kings 23:6 - the grove 2 Chronicles 24:18 - And they left 2 Chronicles 33:3 - made groves Jeremiah 3:6 - she is Ezekiel 6:13 - upon Hosea 4:14 - and they Hosea 10:1 - images

Cross-References

Genesis 14:9
against the kings of Elam, Goiim, Babylonia, and Ellasar, five kings against four.
Genesis 14:12
Lot, Abram's nephew, was living in Sodom, so they took him and all his possessions.
Genesis 14:15
There he divided his men into groups, attacked the enemy by night, and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus,
Genesis 14:16
and got back all the loot that had been taken. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other prisoners.
1 Kings 13:8
The prophet answered, "Even if you gave me half of your wealth, I would not go with you or eat or drink anything with you.
2 Kings 5:16
Elisha answered, "By the living Lord , whom I serve, I swear that I will not accept a gift." Naaman insisted that he accept it, but he would not.
2 Kings 5:20
when Elisha's servant Gehazi said to himself, "My master has let Naaman get away without paying a thing! He should have accepted what that Syrian offered him. By the living Lord I will run after him and get something from him."
2 Corinthians 12:14
This is now the third time that I am ready to come to visit you—and I will not make any demands on you. It is you I want, not your money. After all, children should not have to provide for their parents, but parents should provide for their children.
Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 m and Xenophon n relate; and with the Getae, a people in Thrace, was a mountain they reckoned sacred o.

m Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 131. n Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 45. o Strabo Geograph. l. 7. p. 206.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The words “they also” are emphatic. Not only did the Israelites make themselves high places 1Ki 12:31; 1 Kings 13:32, but the people of Judah also. The “high places,” which are said to have been “built,” were probably small shrines or tabernacles hung with bright-colored tapestry Ezekiel 16:16, like the “sacred tent” of the Carthaginians.

The “images” were rather “pillars” (Genesis 28:18 note).

Groves - See 1 Kings 14:15, note. The “groves,” it will be observed, were “built” on high hills and “under green trees.”

Under every green tree - i. e., under all those remarkable trees which, standing singly about the land, were landmarks to their respective neighborhoods, and places of resort to travelers, who gladly rested under their shade Deuteronomy 12:2.


 
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