Historical

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah^(A)

33 Manasseh began to reign at the age of twelve years, and continued to reign for 55 years in Jerusalem. ² But he practiced what the Lord considered to be evil by behaving detestably, as did the nations whom the Lord expelled in front of the Israelis.

The Sins of Manasseh

³ He re-established the high places that his father Hezekiah had demolished, he built altars to the Baals, erected Asherim, and worshipped and served the armies^[a] of heaven. ⁴ He also built altars in the Lord’s Temple, about which the Lord had spoken “My name will reside in Jerusalem forever.”^{[b] 5} He built altars for all the armies^[c] of heaven in the two courtyards of the Lord’s Temple.^{[d] 6} He burned his sons^[e] as an offering in the Ben-hinnom Valley, practiced fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, and communicated with mediums and spiritualists. He did a lot of things that the Lord considered to be evil, thus provoking him. ⁷ He also placed an image that he had carved in God’s Temple, the place about which God had told to David and to his son Solomon, “I will place my name in this Temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,”^{[f] 8} and “I won’t let Israel’s foothold slip on the land that I’ve given to your ancestors, if only they will be careful to keep everything that I commanded them in the Law, in the statutes, and in the ordinance through Moses.”^{[g] 9} This is how Manasseh deceived Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to practice more evil than the nations whom the Lord had eliminated in front of the Israelis.

Manasseh Repents and is Restored

¹⁰ The Lord kept on speaking to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention to him, ¹¹ so the Lord brought in the army commanders who worked for the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him in bronze chains, and took him off to Babylon. ¹² But when he was in trouble, he sought the face of the Lord his God, humbled himself magnificently before the God of his ancestors, ¹³ and prayed to him. Moved by Manasseh’s^[h] entreaties, the Lord heard his supplications and brought him back to his kingdom in Jerusalem. That’s how Manasseh learned that the Lord is God.

¹⁴ Later on, Manasseh^[i] reinforced the outer wall to the City of David on the west side overlooking the Gihon Valley as far as the Fish Gate. He encircled the Ophel,^[j] raising it to a great height. ¹⁵ He also eliminated the foreign gods and idols from the Lord’s Temple, along with all of the altars that he had built in Jerusalem and on the mountain where the Lord’s Temple was located, and he discarded them outside the city. ¹⁶ He set up an altar to the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings on it, and ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁷ Even so, the people continued to sacrifice in the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

The Death of Manasseh^(B)

¹⁸ Now as to the rest of Manasseh’s accomplishments, including his prayer to God and what the seers had to say to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, they are included among the Acts of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁹ His prayer, how God was moved by him, all of his sin and unfaithfulness, and a record of the sites where he constructed high places, erected Asherim and carved images before he humbled himself are written in the Acts of the Seers.^{[k] 20} So Manasseh died, as had his ancestors, and they buried him in his own palace while his son Amon became king in his place.

Amon’s Reign and Death^(C)

²¹ Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. ²² He practiced what the Lord considered to be evil, just as his father Manasseh had done, sacrificing to and serving all the carved images that his father Manasseh had made, ²³ except that he never humbled himself to the Lord like his father Manasseh had done. In fact, Amon multiplied his own guilt ²⁴ until his servants finally conspired against him and executed him in his own palace. ²⁵ But the people of the land executed all of the conspirators against King Amon and installed his son Josiah as king to succeed him.

Josiah Succeeds Amon^(D)

34 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem. ² He practiced what the Lord considered to be right, following the example^[l] of his ancestor David, turning neither to the right nor to the left. ³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David. In the twelfth year of his reign,^[m] he began to remove the high places, Asherim, carved images, and cast images from Judah and Jerusalem.

⁴ They tore down the altars of Baals in his presence. He chopped down the incense altars that stood high above them. He broke into pieces the Asherim, the carved images, and the cast images, ground them to dust, and scattered the residue on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵ He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, thus purging Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali and their surrounding ruins, ⁷ he also tore down altars, destroyed the Asherim and the carved images, grinding them^[n] into dust, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

Josiah’s Restoration Work^(E)

⁸ In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and the Temple, he sent Azaliah’s son Shaphan, Maaseiah, mayor^[o] of Jerusalem,^[p] and Joahaz’s son Joah, the recorder, to repair the Temple of the Lord his God. ⁹ They approached Hilkiah the high priest and delivered to him the money that had been brought into God’s Temple that the descendants of Levi and gatekeepers had collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, the surviving Israelis, Judah, Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They paid it to the workmen who supervised the Lord’s Temple, and the workmen who were employed in the Lord’s Temple to supervise restoration and repair of the Temple. ¹¹ They, in turn, paid the carpenters and builders to purchase quarried stone and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that previous^[q] kings of Judah had let deteriorate. ¹² The workmen did their duties faithfully with these foremen supervising them: Jahath and Obadiah, descendants of Levi who were Merari’s sons, Zechariah and Meshullam, descendants of Kohath, and various descendants of Levi, who were skilled musicians. ¹³ These men also supervised the heavy lift workers and supervised all the workmen from job to job, while some of the descendants of Levi served as scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.

The Book of the Law is Discovered^(F)

¹⁴ While they were bringing out the money that had come in as gifts to the Lord’s Temple, Hilkiah the priest discovered the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been handed down by Moses. ¹⁵ Hilkiah reported his finding to Shaphan the scribe, telling him, “I found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s Temple. Then he gave the book to Shaphan. ¹⁶ Shaphan took the book to the king and gave an additional report to the king, telling him “Everything that you’ve entrusted to your servants is being carried out. ¹⁷ They’ve removed the money that was found in the Lord’s Temple and have passed it on to the supervisors and the workmen.” ¹⁸ Shaphan the scribe also informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book.” Shaphan read from its contents to the king.

¹⁹ As soon as he heard what the Law said, he tore his clothes. ²⁰ He issued these orders to Hilkiah, Shaphan’s son Ahikam, Micah’s son Abdon, Shaphan the scribe, and the king’s personal assistant Asaiah: ²¹ “Go ask the Lord for me and for those who survive in Israel and in Judah about the words that we’ve read in this book that we found, because the wrath of the Lord that we deserve to have poured out on us is very great, since our ancestors haven’t obeyed the command from^[r] the Lord that required us to do everything that is written in this book.”

Hilkiah Consults with Huldah, the Woman Prophet

²² So Hilkiah and the others who had received orders from the king went to visit Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Tokhath’s son Shallum, grandson of Hasrah. She was the king’s wardrobe supervisor, and she lived in Jerusalem’s Second Quarter. They asked her about what had happened. ²³ In response, she replied:

So they all brought back this message to the king.

The Covenant is Renewed^(G)

²⁹ The king sent word to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ Then the king went up to the Lord’s Temple, accompanied by the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and descendants of Levi, and everyone else from the most important to the least important, and he read out loud^[t] all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s Temple. ³¹ While standing in his appointed place, the king made a public covenant with the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, and to do so with all of his heart and soul, and to carry out what was written in the covenant contained in the book. ³² He also made everyone who was present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand in agreement with him. As a result, the inhabitants of Jerusalem reconfirmed the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. ³³ Josiah also removed all the detestable things from the territories that belonged to the people of Israel, and made everyone who lived in Israel to serve the Lord their God. For the rest of his life, they didn’t abandon their quest to follow the Lord God of their ancestors.