⁶ His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; and he went so far as to take away the high places and the wood pillars out of Judah.

¹⁷ But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.

³³ The high places, however, were not taken away, and the hearts of the people were still not true to the God of their fathers.

³ But still there is some good in you, for you have put away the wood pillars out of the land, and have given your heart to the worship of God.

⁴³ He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away from it, but doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the high places were not taken away: the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

¹⁰ O you, who are full of false tricks and evil ways, a son of the Evil One, hating all righteousness, will you for ever be turning people from the right ways of the Lord?

⁹ As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit.

⁵ They will make songs about the ways of the Lord; for great is the glory of the Lord.

¹ <ALEPH> Happy are they who are without sin in their ways, walking in the law of the Lord.

²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been turned away in sin from my God.

²² For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put away his laws from me.

²⁶ For then you will have delight in the Ruler of all, and your face will be lifted up to God.

³ In the eighth year of his rule, while he was still young, his heart was first turned to the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he undertook the clearing away of all the high places and the pillars and the images of wood and metal from Judah and Jerusalem.

⁴ He had the altars of the Baals broken down, while he himself was present; and the sun-images which were placed on high over them he had cut down; and the pillars of wood and the metal images he had broken up and crushed to dust, dropping the dust over the resting-places of the dead who had made offerings to them.

⁵ And he had the bones of the priests burned on their altars, and so he made Judah and Jerusalem clean.

⁶ And in all the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon as far as Naphtali, he made waste their houses round about.

⁷ He had the altars and the pillars of wood pulled down and the images crushed to dust, and all the sun-images cut down, through all the land of Israel, and then he went back to Jerusalem.

¹ Now when all this was over, all the men of Israel who were present went out into the towns of Judah, causing the stone pillars to be broken up and the wood pillars to be cut down, pulling down the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, till all were gone. Then all the children of Israel went back to their towns, every man to his property.

³ For he took away the altars of strange gods and the high places, and had the upright stones broken and the wood pillars cut down;

⁴⁷ Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things;