Yahweh and His Asherah: The Debate Continues

Over the last two decades scholars have argued about the meaning of three roughly drawn figures and an inscription (“I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his Asherah”) reconstructed from the fragments of a storage jar excavated at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, in the Sinai desert. Might the inscription imply that some ancient worshipers believed the God of the Israelites had a female consort? If Yahweh is the large figure on the left, which of the other two figures represents his Asherah? Or perhaps the Asherah is shown elsewhere on the jar and not in this drawing at all (see the stylized tree over the lion’s back, reconstructed from other fragments of the same jar). Or could “Asherah” in this context mean Yahweh’s holy place and not even pertain to a consort?