³ For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had pulled down and erected altars to the Baals, made sacred poles,^[a] worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.^(A)

Forbidden Forms of Worship

²¹ “You shall not plant any tree as a sacred pole^[a] beside the altar that you make for the Lord your God,^(A)

³ by going to serve other gods and worshiping them—whether the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden—

Pagan Shrines Destroyed

31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke down the pillars, cut down the sacred poles,^[a] and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, all to their individual properties.^(A)

¹⁴ They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for offering incense they took away and threw into the Wadi Kidron.^(A)

¹³ And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been made to the whole host of heaven and libations have been poured out to other gods.^(A)

⁵ He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ He brought out the image of^[a] Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust, and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.^(A)

⁴ He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole.^[a] He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan.^(A)