[485] The rendering "grove" in the A.V. is borrowed from the ἄλσος of the LXX., and the _lucus_ of the Vulgate. On the connection of the Asherah with the sacred tree of the Assyrian, see my article on "Grove" in Smith's _Dict. of the Bible_; and Fergusson, _Nineveh and Persepolis Restored_, 299-304. On the worship of Asherah, see 1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Kings xxi. 3-7, xxiii. 4; 2 Chron. xv. 16; Judg. iii. 5-7, vi. 25, xviii. 18. Baudissin in _Herzog Realencykl._, _s.v._ We may well be startled by the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem revealed in Isa. x. 11, xxvii. 9, xxix. 11, xxx. 9, 22, etc. [486] See Wellhausen, _Hist._, 235; Stade, _Gesch. d. V. I._, 460; W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 171; Cheyne, _Isaiah_, ii. 303; Renan, _Hist. du Peuple d'Israel_, i. 230 (Prof. Driver, _Bibl. Dict._, i. 258, 2nd edition). [487] _Hierozoicon_, ii. 3, § 13. [488] Jer. xliv. 17. In the collection of antiquities of Baron Ustinoff at Jaffa are five or six dragon-headed serpents, with ears of copper and hollow inside. They are ancient, and were perhaps used as talismanic copies of Nehushtan. [489] If this was a genuine relic, it must have been nearly eight hundred years old. It is never mentioned elsewhere. [490] נְחֻשׁתָּן, "a brazen thing." The king certainly showed a horror of sacerdotal imposture and religious materialism. Yet Renan argues, from Isa. x. 11, xxvii. 9, xxx. 9, 22, that he must have had a certain amount of tolerance. See _Hist. du Peuple d'Israel_, iii. 30. [491] 2 Kings xviii. 4. _Vayyikra_ is like the English indefinite plural. The impersonal rendering (as in other passages) is adopted in the Targum of Jonathan, the Peshito, etc., and by Luther, Bunsen, Ewald, and most moderns. [492] This relic is still shown in the Church of St. Ambrose at Milan. It used to be the popular notion that it would hiss at the end of the world. The history of the Milan "relic" is that a Milanese envoy to the court of the Emperor John Zimisces at Constantinople chose it from the imperial treasures, being assured that it was made of the same metal that Hezekiah had broken up (Sigonius, _Hist. Regn. Ital._, vii.). It is probably a symbol used by some ophite sect. See Dean Plumptre, _Dict. of Bibl._, _s.v._ "Serpent." [493] 2 Kings xvi. 8; Driver, _Isaiah_, 68. [494] The diverting of the water-courses enabled him to bring the water into the city by a subterranean tunnel. The Saracens took a similar precaution (Gul. Tyr., viii. 7). See Appendix II., where the inscription is given; and compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. Apparently it carried the water of Gihon to the south-east gate, where were the king's gardens. Ecclus. xlviii. 17: "Ezekias fortified his city, and brought in water into the midst thereof: he digged the hard rock with iron, and made wells for water." For "water" the MSS. read "Gog," a corruption probably for ἀγωγὸν, "a conduit" (Geiger) or "Gihon" (Fritzsche). [495] Psalm xlvi. 1-11. [496] 2 Chron. xxviii. 18.