1 Kings 15:13
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.
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 {r}, it was a Priapus, of an obscene figure; and so others {s}, 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 {t}, 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.
{r} T. Bab. Avodah Zarah, fol. 44. 1.
{s} Vid. D. Herbert de Cherbury de Relig. Gent. c. 4. p. 34. Lyram in loc.
{t} "----custos es pauperis horti", Virgil. Bucol. Ecl. 7. ver. 34. & Georgic. l. 4. ver. 110. "----furum aviumque maxima formido", Horat. Sermon. l. 1. ode 8.