Othniel

⁷ The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord^(A) their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.^(B)

¹³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.^[a](A)

⁶ He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley^(A) outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder^(B) and scattered the dust over the graves^(C) of the common people.^(D)

¹⁹ His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled^(A) himself—all these are written in the records of the seers.^[a](B)

³ He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles.^(A) He bowed down^(B) to all the starry hosts and worshiped them.

¹⁸ They abandoned^(A) the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols.^(B) Because of their guilt, God’s anger^(C) came on Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁶ King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah^(A) from her position as queen mother,^(B) because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah.^(C) Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley.^(D)

¹⁴ Josiah smashed^(A) the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.^(B)

¹⁹ Now summon^(A) the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel.^(B) And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”^(C)