Worshiping Other Gods

²¹ Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole^(A) beside the altar you build to the Lord your God,^(B)

²⁵ That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^[a] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^[b](A) beside it.

²⁶ Then build a proper kind of^[a] altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^[b] bull as a burnt offering.^(A)”

⁴ He removed^(A) the high places,^(B) smashed the sacred stones^(C) and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake^(D) Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.^[a])

³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God^(A) of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.

⁴ Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles^(A) and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.^(B)