And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house,.... Which was either an image that had been placed in a grove planted by him, and now removed into the house or temple of the Lord; or, as some think, this was a representation of a grove, a carved grove of gold or silver, in the midst of which an image was placed in the temple; though what Selden observes , seems best of all, that this was an image of Asherah, as in the original text; that is, of Astarte or Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, 1Ki 11:5, the same the Phoenicians are said to call Astroarche, and affirm it to be the moon : in 2Ch 33:7 it is called a carved image the idol he had made; and an Arabic writer says, it had four faces, which seems to be a figure of the cherubim; but, according to Suidas , it was the statue of Jupiter, who also says it had four faces:of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son: that is, of which house or temple:in this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever; see 1Ki 8:29See Gill on "2Ki 21:3".
De Dis Syris, Syntagm. 2. c. 2. p. 233. Herodian. l. 5. c. 15. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. Dyn. 3. p. 66.