^33:2He did evil in the sight of² the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations³ whom the Lord drove out ahead of the Israelites. ^33:3He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky⁴ and worshiped⁵ them. ^33:4He built altars in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my permanent home.”⁶^33:5In the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. ^33:6He passed his sons through the fire⁷ in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it.⁸ He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord and angered him.⁹^33:7He put an idolatrous image he had made in God’s temple, about which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.¹⁰

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Footnotes

2 Heb “in the eyes of.”
3 Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”
4 The phrase כָל צְבָא הֲַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tséva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.
5 Or “served.”
6 Heb “In Jerusalem my name will be permanently.”
7 Or “he sacrificed his sons in the fire.” This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice (, “made his sons pass through the fire”; “sacrificed his sons in the fire”; “made his sons pass through fire”). For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
8 Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with a conjurer.” Hebrew אוֹב (’ov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַּעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov, “owner of a ritual pit”). See H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’ÔB̲,” 86 (1967): 385–401.
9 Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”
10 Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name permanently” (or perhaps “forever”).