Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods #– #on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images.
They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and they burn offerings on the hills, and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters act promiscuously and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
In the days of King Josiah the Lord asked me, ‘Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
The king also defiled the high places that were opposite Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abhorrent idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
Do not bow in worship to their gods, and do not serve them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them and smash their sacred pillars to pieces.
So all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed its altars and images to pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars. Then Jehoiada the priest appointed guards for the Lord’s temple.
Suppose you say to me, “We rely on the Lord our God.” Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You are to worship at this altar”?
For long ago I broke your yoke; I tore off your chains. You insisted, ‘I will not serve! ’ On every high hill and under every green tree you lay down like a prostitute.
Look to the barren heights and see. Where have you not been immoral? You sat waiting for them beside the roads like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
Only acknowledge your guilt – you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You have scattered your favours to strangers under every green tree and have not obeyed me. This is the Lord’s declaration.