^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]

Hezekiah Organizes the Priests

31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and ^(A)broke in pieces the ^(B)pillars and cut down ^(C)the Asherim and broke 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, every man to his possession.

⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So ^(A)Moses made a bronze^[a] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

²² But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^(A)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?

³ Nevertheless, ^(A)the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

^43 (A)He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Yet ^(B)the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

¹² He put away the ^(A)male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed ^(B)all the idols that his fathers had made. ^13 (C)He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her image and ^(D)burned it at the brook Kidron. ^14 (E)But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, ^(F)the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.

^2 (A)The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.

³ Solomon ^(B)loved the Lord, ^(C)walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.

Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal

²⁸ When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.