Second Book of Kings 21

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

² He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, copying the shameful practices of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the sons of Israel.

³ He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, he set up altars to Baal and made a sacred pole as Ahab king of Israel had done, he worshipped the whole array of heaven and served it.

⁴ He built altars in the Temple of Yahweh of which Yahweh had said, ‘Jerusalem is where I will give my name a home’.

⁵ He built altars to the whole array of heaven in the two courts of the Temple of Yahweh.

⁶ He caused his son to pass through the fire. He practised soothsaying and magic and introduced necromancers and wizards. He did very many more things displeasing to Yahweh, thus provoking his anger.

⁷ He placed the carved image of Asherah which he had made in the Temple, of which Yahweh had said to David and his son Solomon, ‘In this Temple and in Jerusalem, the city I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will give my name a home for ever.

⁸ I will no longer make Israel’s footsteps wander from the land I gave their fathers, provided they observe all I have ordered them in accordance with the whole Law that my servant Moses prescribed for them.’

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

¹⁰ Then Yahweh spoke through his servants the prophets,

¹¹ ‘Since Manasseh king of Judah has done these shameful deeds, acting more wickedly than all the Amorites did before him, and has led Judah itself into sin with his idols,

¹² Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this, “Look, I will bring such disaster as to make the ears of all who hear of it tingle.

¹³ I will stretch over Jerusalem the same measuring line as over Samaria, the same plumb-rule as for the House of Ahab; I will scour Jerusalem as a man scours a dish and, having scoured it, turns it upside down.

¹⁴ I will cast away the remnant of my inheritance, delivering them into the power of their enemies, and making them serve as prey and booty to all their enemies,

¹⁵ because they have done what is displeasing to me and have provoked my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until now.”‘

¹⁶ Manasseh shed innocent blood, too, in such great quantity that he flooded Jerusalem from end to end, apart from the sins into which he led Judah by doing what is displeasing to Yahweh.

¹⁷ The rest of the history of Manasseh, his entire career, the sins he committed, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

¹⁸ Then Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the garden of his palace, the garden of Uzza; his son Amon succeeded him.

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz, of Jotbah.

²⁰ He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had done.

²¹ In every respect he followed the example of his father, serving the idols his father had served, and worshipping them.

²² He abandoned Yahweh, the God of his ancestors; he did not follow the way of Yahweh.

²³ Amon’s officers plotted against the king and killed him in his palace.

²⁴ But the country people struck down all those who had plotted against king Amon, and proclaimed his son Josiah as his successor.

²⁵ The rest of the history of Amon, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

²⁶ He was buried in his father’s tomb in the garden of Uzza; his son Josiah succeeded him.