1 Kings 15:12

12 He cleaned house: He got rid of the sacred prostitutes and threw out all the idols his predecessors had made.

1 Kings 15:12 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 15:12

And he took away the Sodomites out of the land
Which were in the times of Rehoboam, ( 1 Kings 14:24 ) , and continued in his father's reign; those he took away, either by driving them out of the land, or by putting them to death according to the law of God, ( Leviticus 20:13 ) even as many of them as he had knowledge of, for some remained, see ( 1 Kings 22:46 ) ,

and removed all the idols that his fathers had made;
or suffered to be made, as Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijam, see ( 1 Kings 11:7 ) ( 14:23 ) ( 15:3 ) .

1 Kings 15:12 In-Context

10 He ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother's name was Maacah.
11 Asa conducted himself well before God, reviving the ways of his ancestor David.
12 He cleaned house: He got rid of the sacred prostitutes and threw out all the idols his predecessors had made.
13 Asa spared nothing and no one; he went so far as to remove Queen Maacah from her position because she had built a shockingly obscene memorial to the whore goddess Asherah. Asa tore it down and burned it up in the Kidron Valley.
14 Unfortunately, he didn't get rid of the local sex-and-religion shrines. But he was well-intentioned - his heart was in the right place, in tune with God.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.