²³ The whole countryside wept aloud^(A) as all the people passed by. The king also crossed the Kidron Valley,^(B) and all the people moved on toward the wilderness.

³⁷ The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley,^(A) you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head.”^(B)

¹³ He even deposed his grandmother Maakah^(A) from her position as queen mother,^(B) because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down^(C) and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

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.

⁶ He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley^(A) outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder^(B) and scattered the dust over the graves^(C) of the common people.^(D)

¹² He pulled down^(A) the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof^(B) near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts^(C) of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.^(D)

¹⁶ King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah^(A) from her position as queen mother,^(B) because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah.^(C) Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley.^(D)

¹⁶ The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.^(A)

¹⁴ They removed the altars^(A) in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.^(B)