And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being
queen
From the kingdom, as the Targum; from having any share in the government, as she might have had during his minority, his mother being dead, as some conjecture; and not only took away her power and authority, but all the ensigns of it, and perhaps forbid her the court: or he removed her from the queen, his own wife, that she might not be corrupted by her; or rather it was from presiding over the rites of the idol next mentioned, and the worshipping of it:
because she had made an idol in a grove;
which had its name from horror and trembling; either because it was of a terrible aspect, or injected horror into its worshippers, or brought terrible calamities and judgments upon them: according to some Jewish writers F18, it was a Priapus, of an obscene figure; and so others F19, who suppose she presided over the sacred rites of this impure deity, the same with Baalpeor; and the Heathens used to place Priapus in their gardens F20, to fright away birds, (See Gill on Jeremiah 49:16), others take it to be Pan, from whence the word "Panic", used for any great fright:
and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron:
and cast the ashes of it into it, that none might have any profit by it, the gold and silver on it, and in indignation to it, see ( Exodus 32:20 ) .