2 Kings 21
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
3 He rebuilt the shrines on the hills that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He set up altars to Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and served them.
4 He built altars in the house of the LORD, about which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.”
5 He built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD.
6 He made his son pass through the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and appointed those who consulted the dead and fortune-tellers. He did much that was evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
7 He placed the carved image of the Asherah he had made in the house about which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
8 I will no longer make Israel’s feet wander away from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they are careful to do everything I commanded them, and all the Law my servant Moses commanded them.”
9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
10 The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets:
11 “Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable acts and done worse than all the Amorites before him. He has also made Judah sin with his idols.
12 Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am bringing such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle.
13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of Ahab’s house. I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.’”
14 “‘I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil for all their enemies,
15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and provoked me to anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.’”
16 Manasseh also shed a great deal of innocent blood, filling Jerusalem from one end to the other. This was in addition to the sin by which he made Judah sin, doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
17 As for the rest of Manasseh’s acts, all that he did, and the sin he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
18 Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his house, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon reigned in his place.
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah.
20 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.
21 He followed every path his father had taken. He served the idols his father had served and bowed down to them.
22 He abandoned the LORD, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
23 Amon’s servants conspired against him and killed the king in his house.
24 But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
25 As for the rest of Amon’s acts, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
26 They buried him in his tomb, in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah reigned in his place.
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