Manasseh Reigns in Judah
1 Manasseh awas 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, aaccording to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he rebuilt the1 high places awhich Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, bas Ahab king of Israel had done; and he cworshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
4 aHe also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, b“In Jerusalem I will put My name.”
5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the atwo courts of the house of the Lord.
6 aAlso he made his son pass through the fire, practiced bsoothsaying, 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 of1 Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, a“In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;
8 aand 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 aseduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the Lord spoke aby His servants the prophets, saying,
11 a“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (bhe has acted more wickedly than all the cAmorites who were before him, and dhas 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 ahis ears will tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem athe measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; bI will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
14 So I will forsake the aremnant 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 aMoreover 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 athe rest of the acts of bManasseh—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 aManasseh 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.
Amon’s Reign and Death
19 aAmon 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, aas his father Manasseh had done.
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Commentaries:
No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for 2 Kings 21:1.
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