Dual Panel1MANASSEH was twelve years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years; his mother was Hephzibah.
2He did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD, in following the abominable practices of the nations which the LORD had dispossessed in favour of the Israelites.
3He rebuilt the shrines which his father Hezekiah had destroyed, he erected altars to the Baal, made a sacred pole as Ahab king of Israel had done, and prostrated himself before all the host of heaven and served them.
4He built altars in the house of the LORD, that house of which the LORD had said, “I shall set my name in Jerusalem.”
5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD;
6he made his son pass through the fire, he practised soothsaying and divination, and dealt with ghosts and spirits. He did much wrong in the eyes of the LORD and provoked his anger.
7He made an image of the goddess Asherah and set it up in the house of which the LORD had said to David and Solomon his son, “In this house and Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall establish my name for all time.
8I shall not again make Israel outcasts from the land which I gave to their forefathers, if only they are careful to observe all my commands and all the law that my servant Moses gave them.”
9But they did not obey, and Manasseh led them astray into wickedness far worse than that of the nations which the LORD had exterminated in favour of the Israelites.
10The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets:
11“Because King Manasseh of Judah has done these abominable things, outdoing the Amorites before him in wickedness, and because he has led Judah into sin with his idols,
12this is the word of the LORD the God of Israel: I am about to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that it will ring in the ears of all who hear of it.
13I shall use against Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plummet used against the house of Ahab. I shall wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a plate and turns it upside down.
14I shall cast off what is left of my people, my own possession, and hand them over to their enemies. They will be plundered, a prey to all their enemies,
15for they have done what is wrong in my eyes and have provoked my anger from the day their forefathers left Egypt up to the present day.
16This Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from end to end, not to mention the sin into which he led Judah by doing what is wrong in my eyes.”
17The other events and acts of Manasseh's reign, and the sin that he committed, are recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah.
18Manasseh rested with his forefathers and was buried in the garden-tomb of his family, in the garden of Uzza. His son Amon succeeded him.
19Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for two years; his mother was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz from Jotbah.
20He did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD as his father Manasseh had done.
21Following in his father's footsteps he served the idols that his father had served and prostrated himself before them.
22He forsook the LORD the God of his forefathers and did not conform to the LORD's ways.
23Amon's courtiers conspired against him and assassinated him in the palace;
24but the people of the land killed all the conspirators and made his son Josiah king in his place.
25The other events of Amon's reign are recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah.
26He was buried in his grave in the garden of Uzza. His son Josiah succeeded him.