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 eyes of Yahweh, according to the abominations of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from before the sons of Israel.
3He turned back and rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he raised up altars for 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 passed his son through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.
7He set the carved image of the 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 the foot of Israel wander from the ground that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be 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 what was evil, more than the nations that Yahweh had destroyed from before the sons of Israel.
10Then Yahweh spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets, saying:
11Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations—he has done more evil than all that the Amorites did who were before him, and has also caused Judah to sin with his idols—
12therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing disaster upon Jerusalem and Judah, such that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.’
13I 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.
14I 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 to anger from the day their fathers came out of Egypt until this day.
16Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides his sin by which he caused Judah to sin, doing what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.
17Now the 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?
18Manasseh lay down with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his place.
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 of Jotbah.
20He did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, 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 he bowed down to them.
22He forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of Yahweh.
23The servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house.
24But the people of the land struck down all who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
25Now the rest of the acts of Amon that he did—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
26He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.
Open in the interactive reader →