9 They adopted unlawful practices toward the Lord, their God. They built high places in all their cities, from guard post to garrisoned town.
10 They set up pillars and asherahs for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree.
11 They burned incense there, on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had sent into exile at their coming. They did evil things that provoked the Lord,
12 and served idols, although the Lord had told them: You must not do this.
13 The Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer: Give up your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your ancestors and which I sent you by my servants the prophets.
14 But they did not listen. They grew as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who had not believed in the Lord, their God.
15 They rejected his statutes, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They followed emptiness and became empty; they followed the surrounding nations whom the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.