2 Reyes 21

Manasseh king of Judah

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ²He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out ahead of the Israelites. ³He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴He built altars in the house of the LORD, the house about which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.” ⁵He built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. ⁶He made his son pass through the fire, practiced fortune-telling and read omens, and consulted a medium and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. ⁷He placed the carved Asherah image he had made in the house about which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, the city I chose from among all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ⁸And I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land I gave to their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹But they did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed ahead of the Israelites. ¹⁰The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets, saying, ¹¹“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these detestable things, doing more evil than all that the Amorites did before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols,

¹²therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says this: Look, I am about to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that it will make both ears of all who hear of it tingle. ¹³I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the plumb line used on the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem clean as someone wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴I will abandon what is left of my own people and hand them over to their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil for all their enemies, ¹⁵because they have done what is evil in my sight and have kept on provoking me to anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.” ¹⁶Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to the other. This was besides the sin he led Judah into, so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. ¹⁷The rest of the acts of Manasseh, all that he did and the sin he committed, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ¹⁸Then Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his palace, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.

Amon king of Judah

¹⁹Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah. ²⁰He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹He followed every path his father had followed. He served the idols his father had served and bowed down to them. ²²He abandoned the LORD, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. ²³Amon’s officials plotted against him and killed the king in his palace. ²⁴Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place. ²⁵The rest of the acts of Amon, what he did, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁶Amon was laid in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.