^{3 Ref} For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images.

^{4 Ref} And they brake down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the sun-images that were on high above them he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves `of them' that had sacrificed unto them.

^{5 Ref} And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

^{6 Ref} And `so did he' in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their ruins round about.

^{7 Ref} And he brake down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the graven images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.