2 Chronicles 15:16

15:16 King Asa also removed Maacah his grandmother ¹  from her position as queen mother ²  because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and crushed and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

2 Chronicles 28:3

28:3 He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, ³  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ⁴  whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

2 Chronicles 29:16

29:16 The priests then entered the Lord’s temple to purify it; they brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple every ceremonially unclean thing they discovered inside. ⁵  The Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley.

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¹ tn Heb “mother,” but Hebrew often uses “father” and “mother” for grandparents and even more remote ancestors.

² tn The Hebrew term גְּבִירָה (gÿvirah) can denote “queen” or “queen mother” depending on the context. Here the latter is indicated, since Maacah was the wife of Rehoboam and mother of Abijah.

³ sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice (NEB “burnt his sons in the fire”; NASB “burned his sons in the fire”; NIV “sacrificed his sons in the fire”; NRSV “made his sons pass through fire”). For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

⁴ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

⁵ tn Heb “in the temple of the Lord.”