2 Kings 21:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

He set an image of the grove, &c. The image of that Baal which was worshipped in the grove, or of some other of his idols. The word Asherah, here rendered grove, is nearly the same with Ashtaroth, or Astarte, the imaginary female deities, which were worshipped along with Baalim. This image seems to have been set up in the very temple itself, probably in the holy place; as if designed purposely to affront the Lord to his face, and set him at defiance: “desecrating,” says Henry, “what had been consecrated to God, and, in effect, turning him out of his own house, and putting the rebels in possession of it.”