³ For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to ^(A)seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began ^(B)to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ^[a]Asherim, the carved images, and the cast metal images. ⁴ They tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he chopped down ^(C)the incense altars that were high above them; also he broke in pieces the Asherim, the carved images, and the cast metal images, and ^(D)ground them to powder, and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵ Then ^(E)he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and purged Judah and Jerusalem. ^6 (F)In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their surrounding spaces, ⁷ he also tore down the altars and ^(G)crushed the ^[b]Asherim and the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.