2 Kings 21

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. [a] 2 And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable things of the nations that the Lord had driven out from before the children of Israel. 3 He turned back and rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had pulled down, and he set up an altar to Baal and made sacred groves, as Ahab king of Israel had made them; and he bowed down to all the army of heaven and served them. [b]

4 And he built an altar in the house of the Lord, of which he had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.” 5 And he built an altar to all the army of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 And he passed his sons through the fire, and he practiced divination and read omens, and he appointed one who consults the dead and those who know secrets. He did more and more of what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. [e]

7 And he set the carved image of the sacred grove 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 again move the foot of Israel from the land that I gave to their fathers — if only they keep everything I commanded, according to the whole command that my slave Moses commanded them.” 9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray, to do what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, beyond the nations the Lord had swept away from before the children of Israel.

10 And the Lord spoke through his slaves the prophets, saying, [g] 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done all these evil and detestable things, beyond everything the Amorite did who was before him, and has made Judah also sin with their idols — 12 it will not be so. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Look, I am bringing evils on Jerusalem and on Judah, so that both ears of everyone who hears of it will ring. [h]

13 And I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the weight of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean as an alabaster jar is wiped, and turned upside down on its face. [i] 14 And I will thrust away what is left of my inheritance and hand them over into the hands of their enemies, and they will be a prey and plunder to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my eyes and have been provoking me to anger from the day I brought their fathers out of Egypt until this day.”

16 And Manasseh also shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem with it from one end to the other, besides his sins, with which he made Judah sin by doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. [j] † 17 And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and everything he did, and the sin he sinned — are they not written in the book of the daily record of the kings of Judah? 18 And Manasseh rested 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. [k]

19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz, of Jotbah. [m] 20 And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. 21 And he walked in every way his father had walked, and he served the idols his father served, and he bowed down to them. 22 And he abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.

23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house. 24 And all 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. [n] 25 And the rest of the acts of Amon, all that he did — look, are they not written in the book of the daily record of the kings of Judah? 26 And they buried him in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.