Then he brought out the Asherah pole from the House of Adonai to Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust and threw its dust over the graves of the common people.
He also removed the foreign gods and idols from the House of Adonai, as well as all the altars that he had built on the mount of the House of Adonai and in Jerusalem and threw them outside the city.
Furthermore, all the leading kohanim and the people became very unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. They defiled the House of Adonai, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.
For they have forsaken Me and have alienated this place, by burning sacrifices in it to other gods, which neither they nor their forefathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocents.
All your lovers have forgotten you. They are not looking for you. For I wounded you as an enemy— with cruel punishment— because your iniquity is vast, your sins innumerable.
Now you had repented, and had done that which is right in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty everyone to his neighbor. You even had made a covenant before Me in the House where My Name is called.
“The children of Judah have done what is evil in My sight”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“They have set their detestable things in the House that bears My Name to defile it.
They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it even enter My mind.