² Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains,^(A) on the hills and under every spreading tree,^(B) where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. ³ Break down their altars, smash^(C) their sacred stones and burn^(D) their Asherah^(E) poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names^(F) from those places.

⁴ You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.^{(G) 5} But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name^(H) there for his dwelling.^(I) To that place you must go;

31 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down^(A) the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.