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. 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 incense^(C) to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.^{(D) 6} He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley^(E) outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder^(F) and scattered the dust over the graves^(G) of the common people.^{(H) 7} He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes^(I) that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.

¹¹ He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah^(A) had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court^[a] near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.^(B)

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)