2 Kings 23:6 - Exposition

And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord. The Asherah set up by Manasseh ( 2 Kings 21:3 and 2 Kings 21:7 ), and if removed ( 2 Chronicles 33:15 ), then replaced by Amon ( 2 Chronicles 33:22 ), is intended. (On its probable form, see the comment upon 2 Kings 21:7 .) Without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron (see the comment on verse 4), and burned it at the brook Kidron. After the example of Asa, who had treated in the same way the idol of the queen-mother Maachah ( 1 Kings 15:13 ). Asa followed the example of Moses ( Exodus 32:20 ), when he destroyed the golden calf. And stamped it small to powder . Metals may be calcined by intense heat, and reduced into a state in which a very small application of force will crush them into a fine powder. It is clear from the present passage, that Manasseh's Asherah was made of metal, at any rate in part. And cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people ; i.e. "upon the graves of the common people" (comp. Jeremiah 26:23 , where the expression used in the Hebrew is the same). The common people were not buried, like the better sort, in rock-hewn sepulchers, but in graves of the ordinary description. Burial-places were regarded as unclean, and were thus fit receptacles for any kind of impurity.