¹⁶ King Asa also removed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother. That’s because she had made a pole used to worship the female god named Asherah. The Lord hated it. So Asa cut it down. He broke it up. He burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ Asa didn’t remove the high places from Israel. But he committed his whole life completely to the Lord. ¹⁸ He and his father had set apart silver, gold and other things to the Lord. Asa brought them into God’s temple.