2 Kings
Chapter Twenty-One
1 ¶ Manasseh was
twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was Hephzibah.
2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of
the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he
raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had
done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
4 He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said,
"In Jerusalem I will put My name."
5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house
of the LORD.
6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft,
and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD,
to provoke Him to anger.
7 He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which
the LORD 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;
8 "and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land
which I gave their fathers-only if they are careful to do according to all that
I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded
them."
9 But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than
the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 ¶ And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying,
11 "Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has
acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also
made Judah sin with his idols),
12 "therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing
such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears
will tingle.
13 'And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the
plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping
it and turning it upside down.
14 'So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the
hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their
enemies,
15 'because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since
the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.'"
16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem
from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing
evil in the sight of the LORD.
17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh-all that he did, and the sin that he
committed-are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Judah?
18 So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his
own house, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.
19 ¶ Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned
two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz
of Jotbah.
20 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.
21 So he walked in all the ways that his father had walked; and he served the
idols that his father had served, and worshiped them.
22 He forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the
LORD.
23 Then the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his
own house.
24 But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King
Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
25 Now 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?
26 And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then Josiah his son
reigned in his place.
Go to Chapter Twenty-Two
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