⁷ He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple,^(A) of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever.

³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God^(A) of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. ⁴ Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles^(B) and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.^(C)