¹² He banished the male and female shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols^[a] his ancestors had made.

⁴⁶ He banished from the land the rest of the male and female shrine prostitutes, who still continued their practices from the days of his father, Asa.

²³ For they also built for themselves pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male and female shrine prostitutes throughout the land. The people imitated the detestable practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.

⁷ And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.

¹⁸ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.

²⁶ That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. ²⁷ And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

^2 [a]Asa did what was pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord his God. ³ He removed the foreign altars and the pagan shrines. He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his law and his commands. ⁵ Asa also removed the pagan shrines, as well as the incense altars from every one of Judah’s towns. So Asa’s kingdom enjoyed a period of peace.

⁷ On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem,^[a] he even built a pagan shrine for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and another for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. ⁸ Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.

² “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. ³ Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’ ⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’

⁵ “Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead. ⁶ But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said. As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He has done what he said he would do.’”

¹⁸ “Then I warned their children not to follow in their parents’ footsteps, defiling themselves with their idols. ¹⁹ ‘I am the Lord your God,’ I told them. ‘Follow my decrees, pay attention to my regulations,