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21
1 Manasseh was twelve when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 He did what was evil in the Lord's sight by following the disgusting pagan practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal. He made an Asherah idol pole, just as Ahab, king of Israel, had done, and he worshiped and served the sun, moon, and stars.
4 He set up pagan altars in the Lord's Temple, right where the Lord had said, “I will place my name in Jerusalem forever.” 5 He set up altars to worship the sun, moon, and stars in the two courtyards of the Lord's Temple. 6 He even he sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering, and used fortune-telling and witchcraft, and he dealt with mediums and with spiritists. He did a great deal of evil in the Lord's sight, making the Lord angry.
7 He took the Asherah idol pole he had made and placed in the Temple. This was the place referred to by the Lord when he told David and Solomon, his son, “In this Temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name forever. 8 I will never again make the Israelites wander from the land I gave their forefathers if they are careful to follow everything I have ordered them to do—the whole law that my servant Moses gave them.” 9 The people refused to listen and Manasseh led them to sin so that the evil they did was even worse than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.
10 The Lord said through his servants the prophets: 11 “Since Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed all these disgusting sins, doing even more evil things than the Amorites who lived before him, and by his encouragement of idol worship has made Judah sin, 12 this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Watch out! I am going to bring down upon Jerusalem and Judah such a disaster that it will cause ringing in the ears of everyone who hears it. 13 I will extend over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab,*In other words, God says he will apply the same standard for judging Judah as he did for Israel. and I will wipe away Jerusalem as people wipe clean a bowl, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will give up on the remnant of my special people and hand them over to their enemies. They will be plunder and loot to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight, and have made me angry from the day their fathers left Egypt until today.”
16 On top of that, Manasseh murdered so many innocent people that Jerusalem was filled from one side to the other with their blood. This was in addition to the sin that he had made Judah commit, doing evil in the Lord's sight.
17 The rest of what happened in Manasseh's reign, all he did, as well as the sins he committed, are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 18 Manasseh died, and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon succeeded him as king.
19 Amon was twenty-two when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for two years. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz. She came from Jotbah.
20 He did what was evil in the Lord's sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. 21 He followed all the ways of his father, and he served the idols his father had served, bowing down in worship to them. 22 He rejected the Lord, the God of his forefathers, and did not follow the way of the Lord. 23 Amon's officials plotted against him and murdered him in his royal palace.
24 But then the people of the land killed everyone who had plotted against King Amon, and they chose his son Josiah king to succeed him.
25 The rest of what happened in Amon's reign, and all he did, are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.

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*21:13 In other words, God says he will apply the same standard for judging Judah as he did for Israel.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher