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Judges 3:7

in Judges 3

So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and forgat Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the Asheroth.

KJV

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves.

This verse in Judges 3

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Served Baalim and the groves - No groves were ever worshipped, but the deities who were supposed to be resident in them; and in many cases temples and altars were built in groves, and the superstition of consecrating groves and woods to the honor of the deities was a practice very usual with the ancients. Pliny assures us that trees, in old times, served for the temples of the gods. Tacitus reports this custom of the old Germans; Quintus Curtius, of the Indians; and Caesar, and our old writers, mention the same of the Druids in Britain.

This site's exposition

they forgot the LORD their God

on Judges 3:7-8

Verse 7 is the second of the book's seven reports of evil done "in the sight of the LORD". Where 2:13 named Baal and the Ashtoreths, it names "the Baals and the Asherahs", the wooden poles Deuteronomy 16:21 forbids beside the altar, so idolatry is described by its furniture as well as its gods. The first oppressor comes from Aram-naharaim, the country Abraham's servant went back to at Genesis 24:10.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), that is, the images that were worshipped in groves of thick trees, which were a sort of natural temples. In such unequal matches there is more reason to fear that the bad will corrupt the good than to hope that the good will reform the bad, as there is in laying two pears together, the one rotten and the other sound.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites--The two peoples by degrees came to be on habits of intercourse. Reciprocal alliances were formed by marriage till the Israelites, relaxing the austerity of their principles, showed a growing conformity to the manners and worship of their idolatrous neighbors.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

And the groves - literally, Asheroth, images of Asherah (the goddess companion of Baal): see Deu 16:21 note.

The words behind it

16 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּעֲשׂ֨וּand they did

    vaiyaasuH6213 →2628 times

  • בְנֵי־[the] people of

    venei-H1121 →4930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֤לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הָרַע֙the evil

    hara'H7451 →662 times

  • בְּעֵינֵ֣יin [the] eyes of

    beeineiH5869 →887 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • וַֽיִּשְׁכְּח֖וּand they forgot

    vaiyishkechuH7911 →

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • יְהוָ֣הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֱלֹֽהֵיהֶ֑םGod their

    ʾeloheihemH430 →2601 times

  • וַיַּעַבְד֥וּand they served

    vaiyaavduH5647 →288 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַבְּעָלִ֖יםthe Baals

    habealimH1168 →82 times

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • הָאֲשֵׁרֽוֹת׃the Asherah poles

    haasherotH842 →40 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 4:9

    Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 6:7

      And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

    • Deuteronomy 11:19

      Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

    • Psalms 78:3–8

      that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

    • Genesis 18:19

      For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that…

    • Deuteronomy 32:46

      he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

  • Through

    Exodus 34:13

    Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 23:24

      You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Deuteronomy 7:5

      Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 2 Kings 18:4

      He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites…

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Judges

Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.