So the Israelites put away their statues of gods that were named Baal. They put away their statues of female gods that were named Ashtoreth. They served the Lord only.
But the Israelites said to the Lord,“ We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.”Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.
Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say‘ Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”