Chapter 21

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

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

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

3 For 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.

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

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

6 aHe 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.

7 Then 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.”

9 But 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

10 Now 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;

12 therefore 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;

15 because 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.’ ”

16 aMoreover, 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.

17 aNow 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?

18 aAnd 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.

Amon Succeeds Manasseh

19 aAmon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

20 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, aas Manasseh his father had done.

21 For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them.

22 So ahe forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.

23 aThe servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house.

24 Then athe people of the land 1killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

26 He was buried in his grave ain the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.