And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.
Also Maachah his mother ... her he removed from being queen (cf. 2 Chronicles 15:16 with 2 Kings 10:13; 2 Kings 24:12) х migªbiyraah (H1377) = 'eem (H517) hamelek (H4428), king's mother, a title of dignity; Septuagint, tou mee einai heegoumeneen, from being leader (see the notes at 1 Kings 2:19: cf. Daniel 5:10: Baron du Tott, vol. 2:, p. 64; Bruce's 'Travels,' 2:, p. 531)]. The Sultana, or queen-dowager, was not necessarily the king's natural mother (see 1 Kings 2:19), nor was Maachah, for she was Abijah's mother, and the beloved wife of Rehoboam. Her title, and the privileges connected with that honour and dignity, which gave her precedency among the ladies of the royal family, and great influence in the kingdom, were taken away. She was degraded for her idolatry.
Because she had made an idol in a grove, х miplatsªtaah (H4656), terror, an idol inspiring terror; laa-'Asheeraah (H842), not "in a grove," but for Ashtsroth (Astarte)] - a very obscene figure; and the grove was devoted to the grossest licentiousness. His plans of religious reformation, however, were not completely carried through 'the high places were not removed' (see the notes at 1 Kings 3:2). The suppression of this private worship on natural or artificial hills, though a forbidden service after the temple had been declared the exclusive place of worship, the most pious king's laws were not able to accomplish. The difficulty lay in the strength of the popular attachment to these places of worship. The Vulgate translates the verse thus: 'Also he removed Maachah his mother, that she might be no longer high priestess in the rites of Priapus (the Baal-peor of the Canaanites); he destroyed the grove she had consecrated, and broke the most filthy idol, and burnt it at the brook Kidron,' (see also Jerome, 'On Hosea,' ch. Hosea 10:10: cf. Horace, 'Sat.,' b. 1:, ch. 8:) х bªnachal (H5158) Qidrown (H6939), in the torrent Kidron; Septuagint, en too cheimarroo toon Kedroon, in the winter stream (cf. Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch. 1:, sec. 5).]
Dr. Barclay ('City of the Great King,' p. 302) contends that the term "Kidron," which occurs eleven times in the Scriptures, and always with the prefix "brook," except once, implies that there it was a perennial current (cf. 1 Samuel 30:9-10; 2 Chronicles 32:4; Ezek. 46:45-47; Zechariah 14:8), and that 'it is not at all improbable that the Kidron may yet be gliding along, far below the present surface-rubbish of the earth, for the murmuring of a stream may be distinctly heard in the valley, about two miles below the city, appparently quite deep.'
On the other hand, Dr. Robinson ('Biblical Researches,' 1:, pp. 342, 396) says, 'that it is everywhere only a water-course, (wady), between high hills; and the "brook" Kidron now never flows, and probably never flowed, along its bottom, except in the season of rain' (see also the same opinion expressed, Stewart's 'Tent and Khan,' pp. 257, 316).
There is an apparent discrepancy between this and the parallel passage, 2 Chronicles 14:3. Some have supposed that there were two kinds of "high places," the one infamous for idolatry, and the other, which retained their primitive character as places of pure worship; the former were destroyed, while the latter were allowed to remain. But this hypothesis is clearly insufficient to account for their presumed difference of treatment; because not only idolatry, but all private places of worship and sacrifice were prohibited, after the erection of the national sanctuary in "the place which God had chosen to put his name there." But "high places" were used in patriarchal times, and in the frequently long intervals of the ark's disappearance; so that many who continued faithful to the worship of Yahweh were, from sacred associations or traditional predilection, devotedly fond of these private chapels and altars, and eluded all the most vigilant measures which the reforming kings adopted to search them out for demolition. They were therefore tolerated by Asa, as well as by Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43; 2 Chronicles 33:17), both of whom interdicted and punished all direct idolatry.