12 Francesca Stavrakopoulou consider it unlikely that Isa 1,29-30 refers to sexual practices. Firstly, a sexual connotation of the verb dmj is exceptional, for the majority of occurrences are found in a variety of non-sexual contexts, including those in which tree imagery is evident (43). Secondly, the expression ˆn[r ≈[ lk tjt also occurs in non-sexual contexts, in which it appears to function in a metaphorical and polemical sense as a conceptual shorthand signalling religious disobedience (44). As such, the sexual interpretation of 1,29-30 is unfounded. It is also unlikely that these verses refer to Asherah worship. Though the frequent rendering of the term hrça as “grove” in the Septuagint might suggest that trees and goddesses were interchangeable in the minds of ancient tradents of biblical traditions (45), not every tree condemned in the Hebrew Bible should be taken as indicative of the outlawing of Asherah and her cult. After all, whilst the motif of a sacred tree is certainly well-attested as a symbol or manifestation of Asherah and other goddesses in the material culture of Syro-Palestine and its surrounding regions (46), this motif was not exclusive to goddess cults. Though there is no mention of tombs, ancestors, or related rituals in these verses, text-critics are widely agreed that they are closely related in both theme and language to 65,3-5 and 66,17 (47), in which mortuary gardens and associated cult practices concerned with or devoted to the dead are criticised. Accordingly, and in view of the weaknesses of goddess-focused interpretations, the negative portrayal of trees and gardens in 1,29-30 is better understood as reflecting an Isaian polemic against cultic mortuary gardens. (43) E.g., Exod 20,17; Ps 68,17 (ET 16); Job 20,20; Isa 44,9. The verb occurs in conjunction with tree motifs or tree imagery in Gen 2,9; 3,6; Song 2,3; Isa 53,2. (44) E.g., 2 Kgs 16,4; 17,10; 2 Chr 28,4; Ezek 6,3; 20,28. (45) The Mishneh also reflects an understanding of biblical occurrences of hrça as references to a tree, e.g., ¿Abodah Zareh 3,7. (46) O. KEEL, Goddesses and Trees, New Moon and Yahweh. Ancient Near Eastern Art and the Hebrew Bible (JSOTSS 261; Sheffield 1998) 16-57; P. BECK, “The Tanaach Cult Stands: Iconographic Traditions in Iron I Cult Vessels”, From Nomadism to Monarchy (eds. N. NA’AMAN – I. FINKELSTEIN) (Jerusalem 1994) ˇ 417-446; K. JAROS, Die Stellung des Elohisten zur kanaanäischen Religion (OBO 4; Göttingen 1974) 214-217; J.H. STUCKEY, “The Great Goddesses of the Levant”, SSEAJ 29 (2002) 28-57. (47) See, for example, W.A.M. BEUKEN, “Isaiah Chapters lxv–lxvi: Trito- Isaiah and the Closure of the Book of Isaiah”, Congress Volume, Leuven 1989 (ed. J.A. EMERTON) (VTS 43; Leiden 1991) 204-221; P.A. SMITH, Rhetoric and Redaction in Trito-Isaiah. The Structure, Growth and Authorship of Isaiah 56–66 (VTS 62; Leiden 1995) 186.