The word “Baal” means “owner,” “lord,” even “husband.” Baal worship is choosing a substitute over God, and thereby committing nothing short of spiritual adultery against the Lord, Israel’s covenant partner, her bridegroom. And Israel’s adultery was not only spiritual, but also physical. Baal, in his various local representations, was the storm and fertility god. An Asherah was a stylized pole or carved tree with exaggerated female features, to represent the fertility goddess Asherah, Baal’s consort. Temple prostitution was very real among the Canaanites, in order to satisfy the fertility gods. Israel got caught up in that as well, and played the harlot.
25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it