²⁷ And they demolished the ^(A)pillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it ^(B)a latrine to this day.

²⁹ Therefore ^(A)I make a decree: Any ^(B)people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of ^(C)Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ^(D)shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”

⁵ The king answered and said to ^(A)the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be ^(B)torn limb from limb, ^(C)and your ^(D)houses shall be laid in ruins.

¹¹ Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and ^(A)his house shall be made a dunghill.

³² He erected an altar for Baal in ^(A)the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.

³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ^(A)Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. ⁴ And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the ^(B)incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the ^(C)Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and ^(D)scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ^5 (E)He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And in the ^(F)cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins^[a] all around, ⁷ he broke down the altars and beat the ^(G)Asherim and the images ^(H)into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁷ And he broke down the houses of ^(A)the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ^(B)where the women wove hangings for ^(C)the Asherah. ⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from ^(D)Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city. ^9 (E)However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ And he defiled ^(F)Topheth, which is ^(G)in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(H)that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to ^(I)Molech.^{[a] 11} And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.^[b] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars ^(J)on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars ^(K)that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces^[c] and cast the dust of them ^(L)into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of ^(M)the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^(N)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^(O)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^(P)Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the ^(Q)pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

^4 (A)He removed the high places and broke the ^(B)pillars and cut down ^(C)the Asherah. And he broke in pieces ^(D)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]

²⁵ The carved images of their gods ^(A)you shall burn with fire. You ^(B)shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ^(C)ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.