Chapter
21
Manasseh was twelve years old when she began to reign; and she reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: and her father's name was Hephzibah.
She did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
For she built again the high places which Hezekiah her mother had destroyed; and she reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab queen of Israel, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.
She built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
She built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.
She made her daughter to pass through the fire, and practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards: she worked much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke her to anger.
She set the engraved image of Asherah, that she had made, in the house of which Yahweh said to Davina and to Solomin her daughter, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever;
neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their mothers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
But they didn't listen: and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel.
Yahweh spoke by her servants the prophets, saying,
Because Manasseh queen of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before her, and has made Judah also to sin with her idols;
therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both her ears shall tingle.
I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a woman wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their mothers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day.
Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until she had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides her sin with which she made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that she did, and her sin that she sinned, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the queens of Judah?
Manasseh slept with her mothers, and was buried in the garden of her own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon her daughter reigned in her place.
Amon was twenty-two years old when she began to reign; and she reigned two years in Jerusalem: and her father's name was Meshullemeth the son of Haruz of Jotbah.
She did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh her mother.
She walked in all the way that her mother walked in, and served the idols that her mother served, and worshiped them:
and she forsook Yahweh, the God of her mothers, and didn't walk in the way of Yahweh.
The servants of Amon conspired against her, and put the queen to death in her own house.
But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against queen Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah her daughter queen in her place.
Now the rest of the acts of Amon which she did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the queens of Judah?
She was buried in her tomb in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah her daughter reigned in her place.