2 Kings 21

1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.

2He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out before the sons of Israel.

3And he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars to Baal, and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and he bowed down to all the host of heaven and served them.

4He built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.”

5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

6He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He multiplied doing what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.

7And he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.”

8And I will not again make Israel’s foot wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they are careful to do according to all that I commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.

9But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations that Yahweh had destroyed before the sons of Israel.

10And Yahweh spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets, saying,

11Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done more evil than all the Amorites who were before him did, and has also caused Judah to sin with his idols,

12Therefore, this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I am bringing disaster on Jerusalem and Judah, so that both ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.

13And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

14And I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil for all their enemies.

15because they have done what is evil in my eyes and have been provoking me from the day their fathers came out of Egypt to this day.

16Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin by which he caused Judah to sin, to do what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

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

18And Manasseh lay down with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza. And Amon his son became king in his place.

19Amon 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.

20He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, just as Manasseh his father had done.

21He walked in all the way that his father had walked, and he served the idols that his father had served, and bowed down to them.

22He abandoned Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of Yahweh.

23And Amon’s servants conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house.

24But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

25The rest of the acts of Amon, what he did—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

26And they buried him in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.