2 Kings 21:1–9

Judah’s King Manasseh

21Manasseh ^wwas 12 years old when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ^x2He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, ^yimitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. ^z3He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed ^aand reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, ^bas King Ahab of Israel had done; ^che also worshiped the whole heavenly host ^dand served them. ⁴He built altars in the Lord’s temple, ^ewhere the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put My name.” ^f5He built altars to the whole heavenly host ^gin both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. ^h6He made his son pass through the fire, ⁱpracticed witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. ^jHe did a great amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him. ^k

⁷Manasseh 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. ^l8I 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.” ^m9But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did greater evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. ⁿ