He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹  and worshiped ²  them.

He eliminated ¹  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ²  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ³  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

The Annals of the Prophets include his prayer, give an account of how the Lord responded to it, record all his sins and unfaithful acts, and identify the sites where he built high places and erected Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself. ¹ 

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor ¹  David. In his twelfth year he began ridding ²  Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, Asherah poles, idols, and images.

They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. ¹  Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered my mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment.’ ² 

In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out. ¹ 

I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men consort with harlots, they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. It is true: ¹  “A people that lacks understanding will come to ruin!”

I saw the sovereign One ¹  standing by the altar ²  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ³  so the thresholds shake! Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ⁴  and I will kill the survivors ⁵  with the sword. No one will be able to run away; ⁶  no one will be able to escape. ⁷ 

So he returned to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. Moreover, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.’”

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.

You must by all means destroy ¹  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ² 

Joshua wrote these words in the Law Scroll of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there under the oak tree near the Lord’s shrine.

They paid him seventy silver shekels out of the temple of Baal-Berith. Abimelech then used the silver to hire some lawless, dangerous ¹  men as his followers. ² 

When these men broke into Micah’s house and stole ¹  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

They worshiped ¹  Micah’s carved image ²  the whole time God’s authorized shrine ³  was in Shiloh.

(For this reason, to this very day, neither Dagon’s priests nor anyone else who enters Dagon’s temple step on Dagon’s threshold in Ashdod.)

Then Samuel brought ¹  Saul and his servant into the room and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited. There were about thirty people present.

They cut off Saul’s ¹  head and stripped him of his armor. They sent messengers to announce the news in the temple of their idols and among their people throughout the surrounding land of the Philistines.

Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, ¹  because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord. ² 

Solomon demonstrated his loyalty to the Lord by following ¹  the practices ²  of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.