Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods(A)—on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.(B) Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every[a] place.(C) Don’t worship the Lord your God this way. Instead, turn to the place the Lord your God chooses(D) from all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling and go there.

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Footnotes

  1. 12:3 Lit that

Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains,(A) on the hills and under every spreading tree,(B) where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash(C) their sacred stones and burn(D) their Asherah(E) poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names(F) from those places.

You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.(G) But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name(H) there for his dwelling.(I) To that place you must go;

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He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles.(A) He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made,(B) for until then the Israelites were burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan.[a]

Hezekiah relied on the Lord God of Israel;(C) not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 18:4 = A Bronze Thing

He removed(A) the high places,(B) smashed the sacred stones(C) and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake(D) Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.[a])

Hezekiah trusted(E) in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and snake.