In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images.
Didn’t Hezekiah himself remove his high places and his altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before one altar, and you must burn incense on it’?
He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for until then the Israelites were burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan.
Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. Jotham built the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple.
He walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them but did what was right in the Lord’s sight. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
Then Joash said to the priests, ‘All the dedicated silver brought to the Lord’s temple, census silver, silver from vows, and all silver voluntarily given for the Lord’s temple #– #