2 Chronicles 14:3

14:3 He removed the pagan altars ¹  and the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. ² 

2 Chronicles 15:17

15:17 The high places were not eliminated from Israel, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime. ³ 

2 Chronicles 19:3

19:3 Nevertheless you have done some good things; ⁴  you removed ⁵  the Asherah poles from the land and you were determined to follow the Lord.” ⁶ 

2 Chronicles 20:33

20:33 However, the high places were not eliminated; the people were still not devoted to the God of their ancestors. ⁷ 

2 Chronicles 31:1

31:1 When all this was over, the Israelites ⁸  who were in the cities of Judah went out and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and demolished ⁹  all the high places and altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. ¹⁰  Then all the Israelites returned to their own homes in their cities. ¹¹ 

2 Chronicles 34:3-7

34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor ¹²  David. In his twelfth year he began ridding ¹³  Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, Asherah poles, idols, and images. 34:4 He ordered the altars of the Baals to be torn down, ¹⁴  and broke the incense altars that were above them. He smashed the Asherah poles, idols and images, crushed them up and sprinkled the dust over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them. 34:5 He burned the bones of the pagan priests ¹⁵  on their altars; he purified Judah and Jerusalem. 34:6 In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins ¹⁶  around them, 34:7 he tore down the altars and Asherah poles, demolished the idols, and smashed all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 34:1

Josiah Institutes Religious Reforms

34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ¹⁷ 

2 Chronicles 22:1

Ahaziah’s Reign

22:1 The residents of Jerusalem ¹⁸  made his youngest son Ahaziah king in his place, for the raiding party that invaded the city with the Arabs had killed all the older sons. ¹⁹  So Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

¹ tn Heb “the altars of the foreigner.”

² sn Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

³ tn Heb “yet the heart of Asa was complete all his days.”

⁴ tn Heb “nevertheless good things are found with you.”

⁵ tn Here בָּעַר (ba’ar) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער.

⁶ tn Heb “and you set your heart to seek the Lord.”

⁷ tn Heb “and still the people did not set their heart[s] on the God of their fathers.”

⁸ tn Heb “all Israel.”

⁹ tn Or “tore down.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the high places and the altars from all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and in Manasseh until finished.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel returned, each to his possession to their cities.”

¹² tn Heb “father.”

¹³ tn Heb “purifying.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and they tore down before him the altars of the Baals.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “the priests”; the qualifying adjective “pagan” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tn “In their ruins” is the marginal reading (Qere) of the Hebrew text.

¹⁷ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁹ tn Heb “for all the older [ones] the raiding party that came with the Arabs to the camp had killed.”