Now send word out and gather for me all Israel on Mount Carmel, along with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord to the outside of Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. Then he burned it at the Kidron Valley, crushed it to dust, and threw its dust upon the graves of the people.
King Asa even removed his mother Maacah from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
Then they abandoned the house of the Lord and God of their fathers, and they served the Asherah poles and idols. And divine wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem because of this guilt.
And his prayer and how God received his entreaty, and all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and where he set up the Asherah poles and images before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the sayings of Hozai.
And he turned again to build the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he set up altars to the Baals, and made Asherah poles, and worshipped the starry assembly of heaven and served them.
And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a young boy, he began to seek out the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem from high places, Asherah poles, idols, and carved and cast images.
he broke down the altars, beat Asherah poles and the images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, but teach them to your sons, and your grandsons.
But you must remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to get wealth, so that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is today.
Then the Israelites once more did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord strengthened King Eglon of Moab against Israel because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. The Israelites served Cushan-Rishathaim for eight years.
That night the Lord said to him, “Take a bull from your father’s herd and a second bull seven years old. Tear down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
They cried to the Lord, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’
“When they forgot the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them.