A temple had not yet been built for the LORD, and so the people were still offering sacrifices at many different altars.

In the land that you are taking, destroy all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees.

You worship the fertility gods by having sex under those sacred trees of yours. You offer your children as sacrifices in the rocky caves near stream beds.

by the side of every road you built places to worship idols and practice prostitution.

You dragged your beauty through the mud. You offered yourself to everyone who came by, and you were more of a prostitute every day.

I brought them to the land I had promised to give them. When they saw the high hills and green trees, they offered sacrifices at all of them. They made me angry by the sacrifices they burned and by the wine they brought as offerings.

I asked them: What are these high places where you go? So they have been called 'High Places' ever since.

The LORD said, "Do not make idols or set up statues, stone pillars, or carved stones to worship. I am the LORD your God.

I will pull down the images of the goddess Asherah in your land and destroy your cities.

In the land that you are taking, destroy all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees.

The Israelites did things that the LORD their God disapproved of. They built pagan places of worship in all their towns, from the smallest village to the largest city.

On all the hills and under every shady tree they put up stone pillars and images of the goddess Asherah,

He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he built altars for the worship of Baal and made an image of the goddess Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped the stars.

In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars.

He placed the symbol of the goddess Asherah in the Temple, the place about which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon: "Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped.

At the pagan places of worship, on the hills, and under every shady tree Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense.

Your people worship at the altars and the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah by every green tree and on the hilltops

You worship the fertility gods by having sex under those sacred trees of yours. You offer your children as sacrifices in the rocky caves near stream beds.

Only admit that you are guilty and that you have rebelled against the LORD, your God. Confess that under every green tree you have given your love to foreign gods and that you have not obeyed my commands. I, the LORD, have spoken.