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Chapter 21

1

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

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He did evil in the sight of the LORD, following the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the way of the Israelites.

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He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars to Baal, and also set up a sacred pole, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done. He worshiped and served the whole host of heaven.

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He built altars in the temple of the LORD, about which the LORD had said, "I will establish my name in Jerusalem" - 

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altars for the whole host of heaven, in the two courts of the temple.

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He immolated his son by fire. He practiced soothsaying and divination, and reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits. He did much evil in the LORD'S sight and provoked him to anger.

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The Asherah idol he had made, he set up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon: "In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall place my name forever.

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I will not in future allow Israel to be driven off the land I gave their fathers, provided that they are careful to observe all I have commanded them, the entire law which my servant Moses enjoined upon them."

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But they did not listen, and Manasseh misled them into doing even greater evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed at the coming of the Israelites.

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Then the LORD spoke through his servants the prophets:

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"Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has practiced these abominations and has done greater evil than all that was done by the Amorites before him, and has led Judah into sin by his idols,

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therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I will bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that, whenever anyone hears of it, his ears shall ring.

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I will measure Jerusalem with the same cord as I did Samaria, and with the plummet I used for the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a dish, wiping it inside and out.

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I will cast off the survivors of my inheritance and deliver them into enemy hands, to become a prey and a booty for all their enemies,

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because they have done evil in my sight and provoked me from the day their fathers came forth from Egypt until today.'"

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In addition to the sin which he caused Judah to commit, Manasseh did evil in the sight of the LORD, shedding so much innocent blood as to fill the length and breadth of Jerusalem.

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The rest of the acts of Manasseh, the sin he committed and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

18

Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

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Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

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He did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.

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He followed exactly the path his father had trod, serving and worshiping the idols his father had served.

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He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not follow the path of the LORD.

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Subjects of Amon conspired against him and slew the king in his palace,

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but the people of the land then slew all who had conspired against King Amon, and proclaimed his son Josiah king in his stead.

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The rest of the acts that Amon did are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

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He was buried in his own grave in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.