³ He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles.^(A) He bowed down^(B) to all the starry hosts and worshiped them.

Worshiping Other Gods

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

³ and contrary to my command^(A) has worshiped other gods,^(B) bowing down to them or to the sun^(C) or the moon or the stars in the sky,^(D)

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.

¹⁴ They removed the altars^(A) in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.^(B)

¹³ The houses^(A) in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled^(B) like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs^(C) to all the starry hosts^(D) and poured out drink offerings^(E) to other gods.’”

⁵ He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense^(A) to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.^{(B) 6} He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley^(C) outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder^(D) and scattered the dust over the graves^(E) of the common people.^(F)