when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made.

He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.

He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him.

Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.

His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.

The high places, however, were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.

He had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.

He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.

In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of his ancestors.

When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

Did not Hezekiah himself remove this god’s high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it’?

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

The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

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 himself—all these are written in the records of the seers.

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.