JUDAH’S KING MANASSEH

21 Manasseha was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.b 2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,c imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.d 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyede and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah,f as King Ahab of Israel had done;g he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the skyh and served them. 4 He built altars in the Lord’s temple,i where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.”j 5 He built altars to all the stars in the skyk in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.l 6 He sacrificed his son in the fire,A,m practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists.n He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.o

7 Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.p 8 I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole law that my servant Moses commanded them.”q 9 But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.r

10 The Lord said through his servants the prophets, 11 “Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable actss—worse evil than the Amoritest who preceded him had done—and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin, 12 this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder.B,u 13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab,v and I will wipew Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will abandon the remnantx of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies,