But the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

So his father Isaac said to him, “Indeed, ¹  your home will be away from the richness ²  of the earth, and away from the dew of the sky above.

Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. ¹ 

You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole ¹  near the altar of the Lord your God which you build for yourself.

The mandrakes ¹  send out their fragrance; over our door is every delicacy, ²  both new and old, which I have stored up for you, my lover.

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed ¹  women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ² 

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

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.

Then they cried out to the Lord and admitted, ¹  ‘We have sinned, for we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the images of Ashtoreth. ²  Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies so that we may serve you.’ ³ 

At the same time they worshiped ¹  the Lord. They appointed some of their own people to serve as priests in the shrines on the high places. ² 

For you ignore ¹  the God who rescues you; you pay no attention to your strong protector. ²  So this is what happens: You cultivate beautiful plants and plant exotic vines. ³ 

Owls and wild animals ¹  will live there, ²  all kinds of wild birds ³  will settle in it. The Lord ⁴  will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line ⁵  of destruction. ⁶ 

Israel was a fertile vine that yielded fruit. As his fruit multiplied, he multiplied altars to Baal. ¹  As his land prospered, they adorned the fertility pillars.

He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, ¹  with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ¹  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ²  from the hand of the Philistines.”

He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ¹  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ²  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ³ 

Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, ¹  the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces; all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. ¹  I will make a waste heap ²  of all her images. Since ³  she gathered the metal ⁴  as a prostitute collects her wages, the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.” ⁵