And he caused the grove to be carried out from the house of the Lord without Jerusalem to the valley of Cedron. And he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people.
His prayer also, and his being heard, and all his sins, and contempt, and places wherein he built high places, and set up groves, and statues before he did penance, are written in the words of Hozai.
And he turned, and built again the high places which Ezechias his father had destroyed. And he built altars to Baalim, and made groves; and he adored all the host of heaven, and worshipped them.
Moreover Maacha the mother of king Asa he deposed from the royal authority, because she had made in a grove an idol of Priapus. And he entirely destroyed it, and breaking it into pieces burnt it at the torrent Cedron.
Nevertheless send now, and gather unto me all Israel, unto mount Carmel: and the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty: and the prophets of the groves four hundred, who eat at Jezabel's table.
That night the Lord said to him: Take a bullock of thy father's, and another bullock of seven years. And thou shalt destroy the altar of Baal, which is thy father's: and cut down the grove that is about the altar.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: Who strengthened against them Eglon king of Moab: because they did evil in his sight.
Keep thyself therefore, and thy soul carefully. Forget not the words that thy eyes have seen: and let them not go out of thy heart all the days of thy life. Thou shalt teach them to thy sons and to thy grandsons,
And when he had destroyed the altars, and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of his father David: and in the twelfth year after he began to reign, he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the idols, and the graven things.
And they forgot the Lord their God: and he delivered them into the hands of Sisara, captain of the army of Hasor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.
But afterwards they cried to the Lord, and said: We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Astaroth. But now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee.
Take heed, and beware lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy God, and neglect his commandments and judgments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day.
But remember the Lord thy God, that he hath given thee strength, that he might fulfil his covenant, concerning which he swore to thy fathers, as this present day sheweth.
But after Gedeon was dead, the children of Israel turned again, and committed fornication with Baalim. And they made a covenant with Baal, that he should be their god.