²³ While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over. The king also passed over ^(A)the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward ^(B)the way of the wilderness.

³⁷ For on the day you go out and ^(A)cross over the ^[a]brook Kidron, you will know for certain that you shall surely die; ^(B)your blood shall be on your own head.”

^13 [a](A)He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image ^[b]as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and ^(B)burned it at the brook Kidron.

Reforms under Josiah

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and ^(A)the priests of the second order and the ^[a]doorkeepers, ^(B)to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for ^[b]Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and ^(C)he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁶ He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ^(A)ground it to dust, and ^(B)threw its dust on the graves of the ^[a]common people.

^12 (A)The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and ^(B)the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down; and he ^[a]smashed them there and ^(C)threw their dust into the brook Kidron.

^16 (A)He also removed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a horrid image ^[a]as ^(B)an Asherah, and ^(C)Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁶ So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to ^(A)the Kidron ^[a]valley.

¹⁴ They arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem; they also ^(A)removed all the incense altars and ^(B)cast them into the brook Kidron.