Over the generations of Israel's growth in her Promised Land of inheritance, Ba'al and Asherah had managed to worm their way into the hearts of Israelites like a couple of parasites. Though Jews were expressly forbidden by Yahweh from worshiping other gods or making images of them, the populace nevertheless became infatuated with them and whored after the Canaanite deities. The extent to which Jews gave them obeisance is the extent to which the gods had freedom and power to occupy the land and keep it from being inherited by Yahweh's people.