21 M’nasheh was twelve years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Heftzibah. ² He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, following the disgusting practices of the nations whom Adonai had expelled ahead of the people of Isra’el. ³ For he rebuilt the high places Hizkiyahu his father had destroyed; he erected altars for Ba‘al and made an asherah, as had Ach’av king of Isra’el; and he worshipped all the army of heaven and served them. ⁴ He erected altars in the house of Adonai, about which Adonai had said, “In Yerushalayim I will put my name.” ⁵ He erected altars for all the army of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Adonai. ⁶ He made his son pass through the fire [as a sacrifice]. He practiced soothsaying and divination and appointed mediums and persons who used spirit guides. He did much that was evil from Adonai’s perspective, thus provoking him to anger. ⁷ He set the carved image for the asherah he had made in the house concerning which Adonai had told David and Shlomo his son, “In this house and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Isra’el, I will put my name forever. ⁸ Also I will not have the feet of Isra’el wander any longer out of the land which I gave their ancestors — if only they will take heed to obey every order I have given them and live in accordance with all the Torah that my servant Moshe ordered them to obey.” ⁹ But they did not take heed; and M’nasheh misled them into doing even worse things than the nations Adonai had destroyed ahead of the people of Isra’el.

¹⁰ Adonai spoke this message through his servants the prophets: ¹¹ “Because M’nasheh king of Y’hudah has done these disgusting things; because he has done things more wicked than anything the Emori, who were there before him, did; also because with his idols he made Y’hudah sin; ¹² therefore here is what Adonai the God of Isra’el, says: ‘I am going to bring such calamity on Yerushalayim and Y’hudah that the ears of all who hear of it will tingle. ¹³ I will measure Yerushalayim with the same measuring cord that I used over Shomron, the same plumbline as for the house of Ach’av. I will scour Yerushalayim clean just as one scours a plate, scouring it and then turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will abandon the remnant of my heritage, delivering them into the power of their enemies — they will become prey and plunder for all their enemies; ¹⁵ because they have done what is evil from my perspective and have provoked me to anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt to this very day.’”

¹⁶ Moreover, M’nasheh shed so much innocent blood that he flooded Yerushalayim from one end to the other — this in addition to his sin through which he caused Y’hudah to sin by doing what is evil from Adonai’s perspective.

¹⁷ Other activities of M’nasheh, all his accomplishments and the sin he committed are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. ¹⁸ Then M’nasheh slept with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his own house, the Garden of ‘Uza; and Amon his son took his place as king.

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for two years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Meshulemet the daughter of Harutz from Yotvah. ²⁰ He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, as had M’nasheh his father. ²¹ He followed entirely the manner of life of his father, serving the idols that his father served and worshipping them. ²² He abandoned Adonai, the God of his ancestors, and did not live in Adonai’s way.

²³ Amon’s servants conspired against him and put the king to death in his own palace. ²⁴ But the people of the land put to death all those who had been part of the conspiracy against King Amon. Then the people of the land made Yoshiyahu his son king in place of him.

²⁵ Other activities of Amon and all he acomplished are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. ²⁶ Amon was buried in his tomb in the Garden of Uza, and Yoshiyahu his son took his place as king.

33 M’nasheh was twelve years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Yerushalayim. ² He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, following the disgusting practices of the nations whom Adonai had expelled ahead of the people of Isra’el. ³ For he rebuilt the high places which Hizkiyahu his father had smashed; he erected altars for the ba‘alim, made sacred poles and worshipped all the army of heaven and served them. ⁴ He erected altars in the house of Adonai, concerning which Adonai had said, “My name will be in Yerushalayim forever.” ⁵ He erected altars for all the army of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Adonai. ⁶ He made his children pass through the fire [as a sacrifice] in the Ben-Hinnom Valley. He practiced soothsaying, divination and sorcery; and he appointed mediums and persons who used spirit guides. He did much that was evil from Adonai’s perspective, thus provoking him to anger. ⁷ He set the carved image of the idol he had made in the house of God, concerning which God had told David and Shlomo his son, “In this house and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Isra’el, I will put my name forever. ⁸ Also I will not remove the feet of Isra’el from the land I assigned your ancestors, if only they will take heed to obey every order I have given them, that is, all the Torah, laws and rulings that came through Moshe.” ⁹ M’nasheh caused Y’hudah and the people of Yerushalayim to go astray, so that they did even worse things than the nations whom Adonai destroyed ahead of the people of Isra’el.

¹⁰ Adonai spoke to M’nasheh and to his people, but they paid no attention. ¹¹ Therefore Adonai brought against them the commanders of the king of Ashur’s army. They took M’nasheh captive with hooks, bound him in chains and carried him off to Bavel. ¹² Then, when he was in distress, he began to appease the anger of Adonai, abjectly humbling himself before the God of his ancestors. ¹³ He prayed to him; and God was moved by his plea, paid attention to his entreaty and brought him back to Yerushalayim, to his kingly office. Then M’nasheh understood that Adonai really is God.

¹⁴ After this he built an outer wall for the City of David on the west side of Gichon, in the valley, extending as far as the entrance at the Fish Gate; it encompassed the ‘Ofel, and he built it very high. He stationed army commanders in all the fortified cities of Y’hudah. ¹⁵ He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of Adonai and all the altars he had built on the hill of the house of Adonai and in Yerushalayim, and threw them out of the city. ¹⁶ He repaired the altar of Adonai and offered on it sacrifices as peace offerings and for thanksgiving; and he ordered Y’hudah to serve Adonai the God of Isra’el. ¹⁷ However, the people continued sacrificing on the high places, although only to Adonai their God.

¹⁸ Other activities of M’nasheh, his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Adonai the God of Isra’el are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el. ¹⁹ Also his prayer and how God was moved by his plea, all his sin and disloyalty, and the locations where he built high places and set up the sacred poles and carved images before he humbled himself are written in the History of the Seers.

²⁰ Then M’nasheh slept with his ancestors and was buried at his own house, and Amon his son took his place as king.

²¹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for two years in Yerushalayim. ²² He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, as had M’nasheh his father. Amon sacrificed to all the carved images that M’nasheh his father had made, and served them. ²³ He did not humble himself before Adonai, as M’nasheh his father had done; rather, this Amon kept adding to his guilt.

²⁴ His servants conspired against him and put the king to death in his own palace. ²⁵ But the people of the land put to death all those who had been part of the conspiracy against King Amon. Then the people of the land made Yoshiyahu his son king in place of him.

4 When Yeshua learned that the P’rushim had heard he was making and immersing more talmidim than Yochanan ² (although it was not Yeshua himself who immersed but his talmidim), ³ Yeshua left Y’hudah and set out again for the Galil. ⁴ This meant that he had to pass through Shomron.

⁵ He came to a town in Shomron called Sh’khem, near the field Ya‘akov had given to his son Yosef. ⁶ Ya‘akov’s Well was there; so Yeshua, exhausted from his travel, sat down by the well; it was about noon. ⁷ A woman from Shomron came to draw some water; and Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” ⁸ (His talmidim had gone into town to buy food.) ⁹ The woman from Shomron said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for water from me, a woman of Shomron?” (For Jews don’t associate with people from Shomron.) ¹⁰ Yeshua answered her, “If you knew God’s gift, that is, who it is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink of water,’ then you would have asked him; and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ She said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep; so where do you get this ‘living water’? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Ya‘akov, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it, and so did his sons and his cattle.” ¹³ Yeshua answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again! On the contrary, the water I give him will become a spring of water inside him, welling up into eternal life!”

¹⁵ “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so that I won’t have to be thirsty and keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ She answered, “I don’t have a husband.” Yeshua said to her, “You’re right, you don’t have a husband! ¹⁸ You’ve had five husbands in the past, and you’re not married to the man you’re living with now! You’ve spoken the truth!”

¹⁹ “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet,” the woman replied. ²⁰ “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you people say that the place where one has to worship is in Yerushalayim.” ²¹ Yeshua said, “Lady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. ²² You people don’t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming — indeed, it’s here now — when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping him. ²⁴ God is spirit; and worshippers must worship him spiritually and truly.”

²⁵ The woman replied, “I know that Mashiach is coming” (that is, “the one who has been anointed”). “When he comes, he will tell us everything.” ²⁶ Yeshua said to her, “I, the person speaking to you, am he.”

²⁷ Just then, his talmidim arrived. They were amazed that he was talking with a woman; but none of them said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water-jar, went back to the town and said to the people there, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could it be that this is the Messiah?” ³⁰ They left the town and began coming toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile, the talmidim were urging Yeshua, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he answered, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” ³³ At this, the talmidim asked one another, “Could someone have brought him food?” ³⁴ Yeshua said to them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants and to bring his work to completion. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest’? Well, what I say to you is: open your eyes and look at the fields! They’re already ripe for harvest! ³⁶ The one who reaps receives his wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the reaper and the sower may be glad together — ³⁷ for in this matter, the proverb, ‘One sows and another reaps,’ holds true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have done the hard labor, and you have benefited from their work.”

³⁹ Many people from that town in Shomron put their trust in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all the things I did.” ⁴⁰ So when these people from Shomron came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed two days, ⁴¹ and many more came to trust because of what he said. ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer trust because of what you said, because we have heard for ourselves. We know indeed that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

⁴³ After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil. ⁴⁴ Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” ⁴⁵ But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.

⁴⁶ He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum. ⁴⁷ This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!” ⁴⁹ The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left. ⁵¹ As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive ⁵² So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” ⁵³ The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted. ⁵⁴ This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil.