Manasseh Reigns over Judah

21 ^(A)Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. ^2 (B)And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, ^(C)according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh dispossessed before the sons of Israel. ³ Indeed, ^(D)he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and ^(E)he erected altars for Baal and made an ^[a]Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and ^(F)worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (G)And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, “^(H)In Jerusalem I will put My name.” ⁵ Indeed, he built altars for ^(I)all the host of heaven in ^(J)the two courts of the house of Yahweh. ^6 (K)He even made his son pass through the fire, ^(L)practiced soothsaying and interpreted omens, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much that was evil in the sight of Yahweh provoking Him to anger. ⁷ Then ^(M)he put the graven image of Asherah, which he had made, in the house of which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, “^(N)In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares Yahweh, “they have ^(A)set their detestable things in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it.

⁴ Because they have ^(A)forsaken Me and have ^(B)made this a foreign place and have burned incense in it to ^(C)other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the ^(D)blood of the innocent ⁵ and have built the ^(E)high places of Baal to burn their ^(F)sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever come upon My heart, ⁶ therefore, behold, ^(G)days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called ^(H)Topheth or ^(I)the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, ^(A)raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this ^(B)figure of jealousy at the entrance.