2 Kings 21:1-15 ▼

1 Manasseh [is] a son of twelve years in his reigning, and he has reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Hephzi-Bah;

2 and he does evil in the eyes of YHWH, according to the abominations of the nations that YHWH dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel,

3 and he turns and builds the high places that his father Hezekiah destroyed, and raises altars for Ba‘al, and makes an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel did, and bows himself to all the host of the heavens, and serves them.

4 And he has built altars in the house of YHWH, of which YHWH said, “In Jerusalem I put My Name.”

5 And he builds altars to all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of YHWH;

6 and he has caused his son to pass through fire, and observed clouds, and used enchantment, and dealt with a familiar spirit and wizards; he has multiplied to do evil in the eyes of YHWH—to provoke to anger.

7 And he sets the carved image of the Asherah that he made in the house of which YHWH said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I put My Name for all time;

8 and I do not add to cause the foot of Israel to move from the ground that I gave to their fathers, only, if they observe to do according to all that I commanded them, and to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them.”

9 And they have not listened, and Manasseh causes them to err, to do evil above the nations that YHWH destroyed from the presence of the sons of Israel.

10 And YHWH speaks by the hand of his servants the prophets, saying,

11 “Because that Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations—he has done evil above all that the Amorites have done who [are] before him, and also causes Judah to sin by his idols—

12 therefore, thus said YHWH, God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing in calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, his two ears tingle.

13 And I have stretched out the line of Samaria over Jerusalem, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and wiped Jerusalem as one wipes the dish—he has wiped, and has turned [it] on its face.

14 And I have left the remnant of My inheritance, and given them into the hand of their enemies, and they have been for a prey and for a spoil to all their enemies,

15 because that they have done evil in My eyes, and are provoking Me to anger from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”