⁴ He removed^(A) the high places,^(B) smashed the sacred stones^(C) and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake^(D) Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.^[a])

¹³ In the fourteenth year^(A) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah^(B) and captured them.

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold^(A)

19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore^(B) his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. ² He sent Eliakim^(C) the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,^(D) all wearing sackcloth,^(E) to the prophet Isaiah^(F) son of Amoz. ³ They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment^(G) of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

⁵ In the two courts^(A) of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. ⁶ He sacrificed his own son^(B) in the fire, practiced divination,^(C) sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists.^(D) He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing^(E) his anger.

⁷ He took the carved Asherah pole^(F) he had made and put it in the temple,^(G) 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 will put my Name^(H) forever. ⁸ I will not again^(I) make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses^(J) gave them.” ⁹ But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil^(K) than the nations^(L) the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹⁰ The Lord said through his servants the prophets: ¹¹ “Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil^(M) than the Amorites^(N) who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols.^{(O) 12} Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster^(P) on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.^{(Q) 13} I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line^(R) used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe^(S) out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will forsake^(T) the remnant^(U) of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; ¹⁵ they have done evil^(V) in my eyes and have aroused^(W) my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.”

¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood^(X) that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah^(Y) to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.