And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
Brought out the grove - i:e., Asherah the mystic tree, placed by Mannaseh in the temple, removed by him after his conversion, and replaced in the sanctuary by his wicked son Amon. Josiah had it taken to Kidron, burnt the wood ground the metal about it to powder, and strewed the ashes on "the graves of the children of the people." It appears, from this verse recording the action of Josiah, and that of Moses under similar circumstances (Exodus 32:20), that, ordinarily speaking, the Kidron was not a running stream of water; for, lacking water, Josiah cast the powder upon the graves, then, as now, plentiful in that valley. The poor were buried in a common on part of the valley of Kidron. But reference is here made to the graves 'of those that had sacrificed' (2 Chronicles 34:4).