There is a temptation to believe that the only difference between true and false religion is the goal to which the worship is directed. True religion is directed to the living and true God, while false religion is directed to a god or gods, who are false.
Yet, this truth is not the only difference. The manner of worship is different and sometimes immensely different. That is the case at this point. Judah worshipped gods that were false, and their worship included detestable practices.
The false god that Judah worshipped was the same deity that Jeroboam led the northern kingdom to worship. In contrast to Yahweh, Asherah was worshipped on every high hill and under every green tree,
for they had neglected the fact that God had decreed that he was to be worshipped in Jerusalem, where he caused his name to dwell. Such a requirement for proper worship was based upon the nature of the sacrificial system that was then established with constraints that could not be fulfilled in a multitude of different places.
1 Kings 14:24 shows more of the detestable practice of false worship. This was the implementation of male cult prostitutes. They believed Asherah to be the goddess of fertility, and they saw sexual intimacy with these prostitutes as part of the obligation that the worshipper owed to the goddess.
We are also told of the evaluation of these false religious practices. Judah was guilty of all the abominable practices that were committed by the Canaanites and other nations whom the Lord caused them to replace in the land of promise. We may infer from this that Judah had earned the same kind of judgment that those pagan nations had brought upon themselves.
23 Ils se bâtirent, eux aussi, des hauts lieux avec des statues et des idoles sur toute colline élevée et sous tout arbre vert.