Manasseh Reigns in Judah
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzibah.
And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
And he turned and built the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for the Baal, and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; and he bowed down to all the host of the heavens, and served them.
And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will set my name.”
And he built altars for all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
And he made his son pass through the fire, and practiced soothsaying and read omens, and dealt with a spirit of the dead and with familiar spirits. He did much of the evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him.
And he set the carved image of the 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 set my name forever.
And I will not again make the foot of Israel wander from the soil that I gave to their fathers — only if they take care to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the instruction that my servant Moses commanded them.”
But they did not listen; and Manasseh led them astray, to do the evil more than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the sons of Israel.
Manasseh’s Idolatries Rebuked
And the LORD spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets, saying:
“Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these abominations — he has done more evil than all that the Amorites did who were before him, and he has caused even Judah to sin with his idols —
therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Look — I am bringing evil on Jerusalem and Judah such that whoever hears of it, both his ears will ring.
And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes the dish — wiping it and turning it over on its face.
And I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance, and give them into the hand of their enemies; and they will become plunder and spoil for all their enemies —
because they have done the evil in my eyes, and have been provoking me, from the day their fathers went out from Egypt until this day.”
And Manasseh also shed innocent blood — very much, until he had filled Jerusalem mouth to mouth — apart from his sin by which he caused Judah to sin, to do the evil in the eyes of the LORD.
And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned — are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
And Manasseh lay down with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son became king in his place.
Amon Reigns in Judah
Amon 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, from Jotbah.
And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done.
And he walked in all the way that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and bowed down to them.
And he abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
And the servants of Amon conspired against him; and they put the king to death in his house.
And 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.
And the rest of the acts of Amon that he did — are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
And he was buried in his tomb, in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his son became king in his place.