With the wood of the grove - It is probable that אשרה Asherah here signifies Astarte; and that there was a wooden image of this goddess on the altar of Baal. Baal-peor was the same as Priapus, Astarte as Venus; these two impure idols were proper enough for the same altar. In early times, and among rude people, the images of the gods were made of wood. This is the case still with the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, with the Indians of America, and with the inhabitants of Ceylon: many of the images of Budhoo are of wood. The Scandinavians also had wooden gods.
In the ordered place - See the margin. “Build an altar, etc., with the materials,” “the wood laid in order” (compare Genesis 22:9), that, namely, which he would find ready to hand in the altar of Baal which he was to throw down.
The wood of the grove - “The (blocks of) wood of the idol,” i. e. the image of Astarte. The command from God Himself to build an altar, and sacrifice upon it, is analogous to Elijah‘s sacrifice 1 Kings 18, and was doubtless caused by the extraordinary circumstance of the defection of the Israelites from the worship of the true God. Possibly, too, the Midianite invasion had made the worship at Shiloh impossible at this time.