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.

¹³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.^[a](A)

⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles^[a](A) and burn their idols in the fire.^(B)

³ Break down their altars, smash^(A) their sacred stones and burn^(B) their Asherah^(C) poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names^(D) from those places.

Worshiping Other Gods

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

Othniel

⁷ The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord^(A) their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.^(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^[c] 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^[d] bull as a burnt offering.^(B)”

²⁸ In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar,^(A) demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

³⁰ The people of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar^(A) and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”