¹⁶ And he brought me into ^(A)the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, ^(B)between the ^(C)porch and ^(D)the altar, were about twenty-five men, ^(E)with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping ^(F)the sun toward the east.

¹⁹ And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see ^(A)the sun and the moon and the stars, ^(B)all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

³ and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or ^(A)the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(B)which I have forbidden,

^17 (A)But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to ^(B)the queen of heaven ^(C)and pour out drink offerings to her, ^(D)as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.

² And they shall be spread ^(A)before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. ^(B)And they shall not be gathered or buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.

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.^[a] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

⁵ And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations ^(A)and all the host of the heavens.