¹³ Rather, you shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles,^[a](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)

²⁴ you shall not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.^(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)

² “You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³ Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^[a] with fire, and cut down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.^(A)

²⁵ The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it, for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.^{(A) 26} Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

⁵ But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred poles,^[a] and burn their idols with fire.^(A)

³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles,^[a] and the carved and the cast images.^{(A) 4} In his presence they pulled down the altars of the Baals; he demolished the incense altars that stood above them. He broke down the sacred poles^[b] and the carved and the cast images; he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.^(B)

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 He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles,^[a] and covered the sites with human bones.^(A)