The wickedness of Manasses: God’s threats by his prophets. His wicked son Amon succeeds him, and is slain by his servants.

¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hephzibah.

² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, in accord with the idols of the nations that the Lord destroyed before the face of the sons of Israel.

³ And he turned away. And he built up the high places that his father, Hezekiah, had destroyed. And he erected altars to Baal, and he made sacred groves, just as Ahab, the king of Israel, had done. And he adored the entire army of heaven, and he served them.¹

1. 21:3He converted, but in the negative sense of turning away from God.(Conte)

⁴ And he constructed altars in the house of the Lord, about which the Lord said: “In Jerusalem, I will place my name.”

⁵ And he constructed altars, for the entire army of heaven, within the two courts of the temple of the Lord.

⁶ And he led his son through fire. And he used divinations, and observed omens, and appointed soothsayers, and multiplied diviners, so that he did evil before the Lord, and provoked him.¹

1. 21:6Pythons: That is, diviners by spirits.(Challoner)

⁷ Also, he set up an idol, of the sacred grove that he had made, in the temple of the Lord, about which the Lord 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 place my name forever.

⁸ And I will no longer cause the feet of Israel to be moved from the land that I gave to their fathers: if only they will take care to do all that I have instructed them, and the entire law that my servant Moses commanded to them.”

⁹ Yet truly, they did not listen. Instead, they were seduced by Manasseh, so that they did evil, more so than the nations that the Lord crushed before the face of the sons of Israel.

¹⁰ And so the Lord spoke, by the hand of his servants, the prophets, saying:

¹¹ “Since Manasseh, the king of Judah, has committed these wicked abominations, beyond all that the Amorites before him have done, and also has caused Judah to sin by his defilements,

¹² because of this, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead evils over Jerusalem and over Judah, such that, whoever will hear of these things, both his ears will ring.

¹³ And I will extend the measuring line of Samaria over Jerusalem, with the scale of the house of Ahab. And I will erase Jerusalem, just as writing tablets are usually erased. And after erasing, I will turn it and repeatedly drag a stylus over its surface.

¹⁴ And truly, I will send away the remnants of my inheritance, and I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies. And they will be devastated and plundered by all their adversaries.

¹⁵ For they have done evil before me, and they have persevered in provoking me, from the day when their fathers departed from Egypt, even to this day.

¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh also has shed an exceedingly great amount of innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem even to the mouth, aside from his sins by which he caused Judah to sin, so that they did evil before the Lord.”

¹⁷ Now the rest of the words of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, have these not been written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah?

¹⁸ And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And Amon, his son, reigned in his place.

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah.

²⁰ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father, Manasseh, had done.

²¹ And he walked in all the ways in which his father had walked. And he served the unclean things that his father had served, and he adored them.

²² And he abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and he did not walk in the way of the Lord.

²³ And his servants undertook treachery against him. And they killed the king in his own house.

²⁴ But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against king Amon. And they appointed for themselves Josiah, his son, as king in his place.

²⁵ But the rest of the words of Amon, which he did, have these not been written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah?

²⁶ And they buried him in his sepulcher, in the garden of Uzza. And his son, Josiah, reigned in his place.