3 The king stood by the pillarl and renewed the covenantm in the presence of the Lord—to follown the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeeperso to removep 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. 5 He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incenseq to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.r 6 He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valleys outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powdert and scattered the dust over the gravesu of the common people.v 7 He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutesw that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.