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.

And he caused the grove to be carried out from the house of the Lord without Jerusalem to the valley of Cedron, and he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people.

And he brought out the Asherah from the house of Jehovah, outside Jerusalem, to the torrent of Kidron, and burned it at the torrent of Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder upon the graves of the children of the people.

And he brought out the Asherah 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 common people.

And he bringeth out the shrine from the house of Jehovah to the outside of Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burneth it at the brook Kidron, and beateth it small to dust, and casteth its dust on the grave of the sons of the people.

And he took the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem to the stream Kidron, burning it by the stream and crushing it to dust, and he put the dust on the place where the bodies of the common people were put to rest.

And he caused the sacred grove to be carried away from the house of the Lord, outside of Jerusalem, to the steep valley of Kidron. And he burned it there, and reduced it to dust. And he cast the dust over the graves of the common people.

The ashes, being polluted and polluting, were thrown upon graves, because there no one could come into contact with them, since graves were avoided as unclean places.

He brought out the grove - He brought out the idol Asherah. See at the end of 2-Kings 21:26 (note).
Upon the graves of the children of the people - I believe this; means the burial-place of the common people.

And he brought out the (g) 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 (h) graves of the children of the people.
(g) He removed the grove which idolaters for devotion had planted near the temple, contrary to the commandment of the Lord, (Deuteronomy 16:21), or as some read, the similitude of a grove which was hung in the temple.
(h) Both in contempt of the idols and reproach of them who had worshipped them in their lives.

And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord,.... Not a real grove of trees, but a carved one, as some think; or rather the image of the grove, 2-Kings 21:7 that is, the idol Ashtoreth, or Astarte, which was set up there; so Theodoret says; some interpreters call it Astoreth, the name of Venus, whom they call Astarte: this Josiah ordered to be brought
without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burnt it at the brook Kidron; the black brook, where the filth of the sacrifices was carried:
and stamped it small to powder; as Moses did the golden calf:
and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people; the common people, see Jeremiah 26:23 or rather on the graves of the worshippers of idols, as it seems from 2-Chronicles 34:4 the Targum is,"on the graves of the children of Galia,''which, Kimchi says, is the name of an idol; this was done partly in contempt of the idol, groves being, according to law, impure; and partly to the reproach of the deceased, and the memory of them, for their idolatry, and to deter from it those that survived them.

brought out the grove--that is, Asherah, the mystic tree, placed by Manasseh in the temple [2-Kings 21:5; 2-Chronicles 33:5], removed by him after his conversion [2-Chronicles 33:15], but replaced in the sanctuary by his wicked son Amon [2-Kings 21:20-21]. 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." 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).

The image of Asherah (האשׁרה = הא פּסל, 2-Kings 21:3, 2-Kings 21:7), which Manasseh placed in the temple and then removed after his return from Babylon (2-Chronicles 33:15), but which Amon had replaced, Josiah ordered to be burned and ground to powder in the valley of Kidron, and the dust to be thrown upon the graves of the common people. ויּדק, from דקק, to make fine, to crush, refers to the metal covering of the image (see at Exodus 32:10). Asa had already had an idol burned in the Kidron valley (1-Kings 15:13), and Hezekiah had ordered the idolatrous abominations to be taken out of the city and carried thither (2-Chronicles 29:16); so that the valley had already been defiled. There was a burial-place there for העם בּני, i.e., the common people (cf. Jeremiah 26:23), who had no graves of their own, just as at the present day the burial-ground of the Jews there lies to the north of Kefr Silwn. Josiah ordered the ashes to be cast upon these graves, probably in order to defile them as the graves of idolaters.

The people - Of that people, those idolatrous people, as it is explained, 2-Chronicles 34:4.