2 Kings 21:1–18

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

^1aManasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah.

^2aHe did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^baccording to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

³For ^ahe rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and ^bhe erected altars for Baal and made an ¹Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and ^cworshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

^4aHe built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “^bIn Jerusalem I will put My name.”

⁵For he built altars for ^aall the host of heaven in ^bthe two courts of the house of the Lord.

^6aHe made his son pass through the fire, ^bpracticed witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger.

⁷Then ^ahe set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “^bIn this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

⁸“And I ^awill not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.”

⁹But they did not listen, and Manasseh ^aseduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

The King’s Idolatries Rebuked

¹⁰Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying,

¹¹“^aBecause Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, ^bhaving done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and ^chas also made Judah sin ^dwith his idols;

¹²therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, ^aboth his ears will tingle.

¹³‘^aI will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

¹⁴‘I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies;

¹⁵because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’ ”

^16aMoreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin ^bwith which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

^17aNow the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he ¹committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

^18aAnd Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, ^bin the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.