21 3 King Manasseh restoreth idolatry, 16 And useth great cruelty. 18 He dieth and Amon his son succeedeth, 23 Who is killed of his own servants. 26 After him reigneth Josiah.
1 Manasseh (A)was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: his mother’s name also was Hephzibah.
2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord after the abomination of the heathen, whom the (B)Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he went back and built the high places, (C)which Hezekiah his father had destroyed: and he erected up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.
4 Also he (D)built altars in the house of the Lord, of the which the Lord said, (E)In Jerusalem will I put my Name.
5 And he built altars for all the host of the heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
6 And he caused his sons [a]to pass through the fire, and gave himself to witchcraft and sorcery, and he used them that had familiar spirits and were soothsayers, and did much evil in the sight of the Lord to anger him.
7 And he set the image of the grove, that he had made in the house, whereof the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, (F)In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name forever.
8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move anymore out of the land, which I gave their fathers: so that they will [b]observe and do all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.
9 Yet they obeyed not, but Manasseh led them out of the way, to do more wickedly than did the heathen people, whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 Therefore the Lord spake by his servants the Prophets, saying,
11 (G)Because that Manasseh king of Judah hath done such abominations, and hath wrought more wickedly than all that the Amorites (which were before him) did, and hath made Judah sin also with his idols.
12 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will bring an evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that who so heareth of it, both his (H)ears shall [c]tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line [d]of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem, as a man wipeth a dish, which he wipeth, and turneth it upside down.
14 And I will forsake the [e]remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall be robbed and spoiled of all their adversaries,
15 Because they have done evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the time their fathers came out of Egypt until this day.
16 Moreover, Manasseh shed [f]innocent blood exceedingly much, till he replenished Jerusalem from corner to corner, beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, and to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
17 Concerning 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?
18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, even in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
19 ¶ (I)Amon was two and twenty years old, when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: his mother’s name also was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
20 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did.
21 For he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them.
22 And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the [g]way of the Lord.
23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the King in his own house.
24 And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against King Amon, and the people made Josiah his son King in his stead.
25 Concerning the rest of the acts of Amon, which he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
26 And [h]they buried him in his sepulcher in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 21:6 Read 2 Kings 16:3.
- 2 Kings 21:8 Therefore seeing they obeyed not the commandment of God, they were justly cast forth of that land, which they had but on condition.
- 2 Kings 21:12 Meaning, that whosoever shall hear of this great plague, shall be astonished.
- 2 Kings 21:13 As I have destroyed Samaria and the house of Ahab, so will I destroy Judah.
- 2 Kings 21:14 Meaning, Judah and Benjamin, which were only left of the rest of the tribes.
- 2 Kings 21:16 The Hebrews write that he slew Isaiah the Prophet, who was his father-in-law.
- 2 Kings 21:22 That is, according to his commandments.
- 2 Kings 21:26 Or, he buried him, to wit, Josiah his son.