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.