Judah’s King Manasseh

21 Manasseh^(A) was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.^{(B) 2} He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,^(C) imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^{(D) 3} He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed^(E) and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah,^(F) as King Ahab of Israel had done;^(G) he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky^(H) and served them. ⁴ He built altars in the Lord’s temple,^(I) where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.”^{(J) 5} He built altars to all the stars in the sky^(K) in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.^{(L) 6} He sacrificed his son in the fire,^[a](M) practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists.^(N) He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.^(O)

⁷ Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.^{(P) 8} I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole law that my servant Moses commanded them.”^{(Q) 9} But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.^(R)

¹⁰ The Lord said through his servants the prophets, ¹¹ “Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable acts^(S)—worse evil than the Amorites^(T) who preceded him had done—and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin, ¹² this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder.^{[b](U) 13} I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab,^(V) and I will wipe^(W) Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will abandon the remnant^(X) of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done what is evil in my sight and have angered me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.’”^(Y)

¹⁶ Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another.^(Z) This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.

²⁶ In spite of all that, the Lord did not turn from the fury of his intense burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all the affronts with which Manasseh had angered him.^{(A) 27} For the Lord had said, “I will also remove Judah from my presence just as I have removed Israel.^(B) I will reject this city Jerusalem, that I have chosen, and the temple about which I said, ‘My name will be there.’”^(C)

The Lord’s Negative Response

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel^(A) should stand before me,^(B) my compassions would not reach out to these people. Send them from my presence, and let them go.^{(C) 2} If they ask you, ‘Where will we go?’ tell them: This is what the Lord says:

³ “I will ordain four kinds^[a] of judgment for them”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away,^(E) and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land^(F) to devour and destroy. ⁴ I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh^(G) son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

Manasseh’s Repentance

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn’t listen.^{(A) 11} So he brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.^{(B) 12} When he was in distress, he sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself^(C) before the God of his ancestors. ¹³ He prayed to him, and the Lord was receptive to his prayer. He granted his request^(D) and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. So Manasseh came to know that the Lord is God.^(E)

¹⁴ After this, he built the outer wall of the city of David from west of Gihon^(F) in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate;^(G) he brought it around Ophel,^(H) and he heightened it considerably. He also placed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵ He removed the foreign gods and the idol^(I) from the Lord’s temple, along with all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. ¹⁶ He built^[a] the altar of the Lord and offered fellowship and thanksgiving sacrifices on it. Then he told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁷ However, the people still sacrificed at the high places,^(J) but only to the Lord their God.