We know our noisy worship of false gods on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹  We know that the Lord our God is the only one who can deliver Israel. ² 

This is your fate, the destiny to which I have appointed you, because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods.

They will repay you for your obscene conduct, and you will be punished for idol worship. ¹  Then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.”

I scattered them among the nations; they were dispersed throughout foreign countries. In accordance with their behavior and their deeds I judged them.

Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

For the Israelites ¹  must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols.

They are all like bakers, ¹  they ²  are like a smoldering oven; they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.

Their heart is slipping; soon they will be punished for their guilt. The Lord ¹  will break their altars; he will completely destroy their fertility pillars.

So will it happen to you, O Bethel, ¹  because of your great wickedness! When that day dawns, ²  the king of Israel will be destroyed. ³ 

Isaac’s centers of worship ¹  will become desolate; Israel’s holy places will be in ruins. I will attack Jeroboam’s dynasty with the sword.” ² 

He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved. ¹  (22:44) ²  However, the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ¹  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ²  I will abhor you. ³ 

you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, ¹  and demolish their high places.

The Lord will attack Israel, making it like a reed that sways in the water. ¹  He will remove Israel from this good land he gave to their ancestors ²  and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, ³  because they angered the Lord by making Asherah poles. ⁴ 

Ahab also made an Asherah pole; he ¹  did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

He followed in the footsteps of ¹  the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, ²  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ³  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹  and worshiped ²  them.

They will no longer trust in ¹  the altars their hands made, or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. ² 

And with all your abominable practices and prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, kicking around in your blood.

All prostitutes receive payment, ¹  but instead you give gifts to every one of your lovers. You bribe them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors!