² Then he cried out against the altar ^[a]by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a child, ^(A)Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be ^(B)burned on you.’ ”

³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still ^(A)young, he began to ^(B)seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began ^(C)to purge Judah and Jerusalem ^(D)of the ^[a]high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.

³ and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and ^(A)I will destroy your ^[a]high places. ⁴ Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and ^(B)I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the ^[b]high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, ^(A)on every high hill, ^(B)on all the mountaintops, ^(C)under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols.