¹⁹ And when you look up to the sky and see the sun,^(A) the moon and the stars^(B)—all the heavenly array^(C)—do not be enticed^(D) into bowing down to them and worshiping^(E) things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

¹⁶ They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves,^(A) and an Asherah^(B) pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts,^(C) and they worshiped Baal.^(D)

³ He rebuilt the high places^(A) his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal^(B) and made an Asherah pole,^(C) as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts^(D) and worshiped them.

⁴ The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers^(A) to remove^(B) from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense^(C) to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.^(D)

¹⁶ He then brought me into the inner court^(A) of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar,^(B) were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun^(C) in the east.^(D)