6
And he brought out
1the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron,
2and burned it at the brook Kidron
3and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves
4of the common people.
7
And he broke down the houses of
5the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord,
6where the women wove hangings for
7the Asherah.
8
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from
8Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city.
9
9However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10
And he defiled
10Topheth, which is
11in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom,
12that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to
13Molech.
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. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12
And the altars
14on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars
15that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them
16into the brook Kidron.
13
And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of
17the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for
18Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for
19Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for
20Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
14
And he broke in pieces the
21pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.
15
Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected
22by Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
23who made Israel to sin,
24that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.
16
And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it,
25according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things.