2 Kings 21

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

11Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. 22He did evil in the sight of the Lord, 3according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. 3For 4he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and 5he erected altars for Baal and made an 6Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and 7worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 48He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “9In Jerusalem I will put My name.” 5For he built altars for 10all the host of heaven in 11the two courts of the house of the Lord. 612He made his son pass through the fire, 13practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. 7Then 14he 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, “15In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. 8And I 16will 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.” 9But they did not listen, and Manasseh 17seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

The King’s Idolatries Rebuked

10Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, 11“18Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, 19having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and 20has also made Judah sin 21with his idols; 12therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, 22both his ears will tingle. 1323I 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. 14I 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; 15because 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.’”

1624Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin 25with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. 1726Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he 27committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 1828And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, 29in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.

Amon Succeeds Manasseh

1930Amon 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. 20He did evil in the sight of the Lord, 31as Manasseh his father had done. 21For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. 22So 32he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. 2333The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house. 24Then 34the people of the land 35killed all those 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 which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 26He was buried in his grave 36in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.