5. He stopped the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained from burning incense on the high places in the towns of Judah and around Jerusalem, as well those burning incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
6. Then he brought out the Asherah pole from the House of Adonai to Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust and threw its dust over the graves of the common people.
7. Then he tore down the quarters of the male cult prostitutes that had been in the House of Adonai, where the women had been weaving coverings for the Asherah.
8. Then he brought all the priests from the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He also broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city governor, which were on one’s left as one entered the city gate.
9. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of Adonai in Jerusalem, but they did eat matzot with their kinsmen.
10. Next he defiled Topheth, which is in the Ben-hinnom Valley, so that no one might make his son or daughter pass through the fire for Molech.
11. Then he did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the House of Adonai, in the colonnades by the chamber of the officer Nethan-melech, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12. The king also tore down the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof—the upper chamber of Ahaz and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the House of Adonai. He smashed them suddenly there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
13. The king also desecrated the shrines facing Jerusalem—to the south of the Mount of Destruction—which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
14. He smashed the pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and filled their places with human bones.
15. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the shrine built by Jeroboam son of Nebat—who caused Israel to sin—that altar and the shrine he demolished, too. He burned the shrine and ground it to dust, and burned up the Asherah.
16. Then, as Josiah looked around, he saw the burial caves there on the mountain, so he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, thus desecrating it—as was the word of Adonai which the man of God had proclaimed, who foretold it.
17. Then he asked, “What is this monument I see?” So the men of the town told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have just done to the altar of Bethel.”
18. “Let him rest,” he said. “Let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.