² By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah^(A) will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places^(B) who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’”

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.

³ and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys:^(A) I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.^{(B) 4} Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars^(C) will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols.^{(D) 5} I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones^(E) around your altars.^{(F) 6} Wherever you live,^(G) the towns will be laid waste and the high places^(H) demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols^(I) smashed and ruined, your incense altars^(J) broken down, and what you have made wiped out.^(K)

¹³ And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols^(A) around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak^(B)—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.^(C)