Because they have forsaken Me, and bow themselves to Ashtoreth the mighty one of the Tsiḏonians, to Kemosh the mighty one of the Mo’aḇites, and to Milkom the mighty one of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways – to do what is right in My eyes, and My laws and My right-rulings, as did his father Dawiḏ.
And the sovereign defiled the high places that were before Yerushalayim, which were on the right hand of the Mountain of Destruction, which Shelomoh sovereign of Yisra’ĕl built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Tsiḏonians, and for Kemosh the abomination of the Mo’aḇites, and for Milkom the abomination of the children of Ammon.
And it came to be, in the fifth year of Sovereign Reḥaḇ‛am, that Shishaq sovereign of Mitsrayim came up against Yerushalayim – because they had trespassed against יהוה –
And he himself burned incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom יהוה dispossessed from before the children of Yisra’ĕl,
For again he rebuilt the high places which Ḥizqiyahu his father had broken down, and raised up slaughter-places for the Ba‛als, and made Ashĕrim, and bowed himself to all the host of the heavens and served them.
“Then they shall say, ‘Because they forsook יהוה Elohim of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim, and embraced other mighty ones, and bowed themselves to them and served them, therefore He has brought all this evil on them.’ ”
then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ declares יהוה, ‘and have walked after other mighty ones and served them and bowed themselves to them, and have forsaken Me, and did not guard My Torah.
“For of old I have broken your yoke and torn off your chastisements. And you said, ‘I am not serving You,’ when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down, a whore.
And the children of Yisra’ĕl again did evil in the eyes of יהוה, and served the Ba‛als and the Ashtoreths, and the mighty ones of Aram, and the mighty ones of Tsiḏon, and the mighty ones of Mo’aḇ, and the mighty ones of the children of Ammon, and the mighty ones of the Philistines – and forsook יהוה and did not serve Him.
“And they cried out to יהוה, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken יהוה and served the Ba‛als and the Ashtaroth. And now, deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we serve You.’
And Shemu’ĕl spoke to all the house of Yisra’ĕl, saying, “If you return to יהוה with all your hearts, then put away the foreign mighty ones and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts for יהוה, and serve Him only, so that He delivers you from the hand of the Philistines.”