2 Kings 21:1-13 ▼

1 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.

2 He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites .

3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.

4 He built altars in the LORD’s temple, where the LORD had said, “ Jerusalem is where I will put My name.”

5 He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards of the LORD’s temple.

6 He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a great amount of evil in the LORD’s sight, provoking Him.

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.

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.”

9 But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did greater evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites .

10 The LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying,

11 “ Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these detestable things  — greater evil than the Amorites 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 disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder .

13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl  — wiping it and turning it upside down .