2 Kings 21

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzibah.

NoteFifty-five years is the longest reign recorded for any king of Judah or Israel. Ancient records of Judah's kings routinely open with the king's age, the length of his reign, and his mother's name; the mother is named because the king's mother held a recognized position at court.

2He did what the LORD said was evil. He copied the disgusting practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out ahead of the people of Israel.

2And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

3He rebuilt the hilltop worship sites that his father Hezekiah had torn down. He set up altars for the god Baal and made an Asherah pole, just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He worshiped and served all the powers of the sky.

3For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

Note"High places" were open-air worship sites, often on hilltops, with an altar and a standing stone or sacred pole. Baal was the storm and fertility god of Judah's Canaanite and Phoenician neighbors. An Asherah pole was a wooden pole or carved tree-like object representing the goddess Asherah. "The host of heaven" means the sun, moon, stars and planets, worshiped as divine powers, a practice associated with Assyria, the empire that dominated Judah in Manasseh's lifetime. Ahab, king of the northern kingdom of Israel about 200 years earlier, is the standard byword in Kings for a ruler who promoted Baal worship.

4He also built altars inside the temple of the LORD, the place about which the LORD had said, "I will put my Name in Jerusalem."

4And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

NoteTo "put my name" in a place is an ownership formula: a name placed somewhere marks the place as belonging to the one named and as where he may be approached. The point of the sentence is that the one building was the one place claimed this way, and Manasseh put rival altars inside it.

5In both courtyards of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the powers of the sky.

5And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

NoteThe temple complex had an outer courtyard and an inner courtyard; "both courtyards" means Manasseh's altars stood throughout the whole enclosure, not in some side area.

6He burned his own son in the fire as an offering. He practiced sorcery and read omens to predict the future, and he consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a great deal of evil in the sight of the LORD, which made the LORD angry.

6And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

Note"Made his son pass through the fire" is the standard biblical phrase for child sacrifice, carried out near Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom. "Observed times" and "used enchantments" refer to divination, reading omens to fix lucky and unlucky days and to predict outcomes. "Familiar spirits and wizards" means consulting the dead through mediums. All of these were specifically prohibited practices in Israelite law, listed together in Deuteronomy 18.

7He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and set it up in the temple. About that temple the LORD had said to David and to David's son Solomon, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever.

7And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:

NoteThe shock in this verse is location: the Asherah pole was not merely set up somewhere in the country but inside the temple building itself.

8And I will never again make the people of Israel wander away from the land I gave to their ancestors, but only if they are careful to do everything I have commanded them, the whole law that my servant Moses gave them."

8Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if 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.

NoteThe promise being quoted is conditional, the land is kept only so long as the commands are kept. Readers of Kings knew that the northern kingdom had already lost its land, and the book is written for people facing, or already living through, the same loss in Judah.

9But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did worse evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed ahead of the people of Israel.

9But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.

10The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets. He said:

10And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,

11"Manasseh king of Judah has done these disgusting things. He has acted more wickedly than the Amorites who lived in this land before him, and he has made Judah sin with his idols.

11Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:

Note"Amorites" is used here as a general term for the earlier inhabitants of Canaan whom Israel displaced. Saying Manasseh outdid them reverses the usual logic: the people who were removed from the land for their practices were now less guilty than the king ruling it.

12So this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am bringing such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears about it will ring.

12Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.

Note"Both his ears shall tingle" is a Hebrew idiom for news so appalling that hearing it produces a physical shock. The same phrase appears at 1 Samuel 3:11 and Jeremiah 19:3.

13I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line I used against Samaria and the plumb line I used against the family of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem clean the way a person wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

13And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.

NoteA measuring line and a plumb line are builder's tools for laying out and checking a wall. Used here they mean the opposite of building: the same standard applied to Samaria, the northern capital destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC, and to Ahab's dynasty, which was wiped out to the last man, will now be applied to Jerusalem. The dish image is domestic and final: a bowl scraped out and set face down, empty.

14I will abandon the rest of the people who belong to me and hand them over to their enemies. Their enemies will rob them and carry off everything they own.

14And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;

Note"Inheritance" is a standard term for the people and land the LORD claims as his own share. "The remnant" is what was left after the northern kingdom had already been carried off by Assyria: that is, Judah itself.

15I will do this because they have done what I say is evil, and have made me angry from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this very day."

15Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.

16Manasseh also killed so many innocent people that he filled Jerusalem with their blood from one end of the city to the other. That was on top of the sin he led Judah into, doing what the LORD said was evil.

16Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.

Note"Innocent blood" is legal language for killing people who had done nothing to deserve death, whether by outright murder or by judicial execution on false charges. The phrase implies a campaign against opponents, not random violence.

17The rest of what Manasseh did, everything he accomplished, and the sin he committed, are all written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

17Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

NoteThe Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah was a royal record now lost. It is not the biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles. The narrator repeatedly points readers to it, treating his own account as a selection made for a purpose rather than a full history.

18Manasseh died and joined his ancestors in death. He was buried in the garden of his own palace, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king after him.

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

Note"Slept with his fathers" is the standard idiom for dying a natural death, distinct from being killed. Burial in the palace garden rather than the royal tombs of the city of David is unusual; the garden of Uzza is not otherwise known.

19Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years. His mother's name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah.

19Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

NoteJotbah was a town, probably in Galilee; naming the queen mother's home town was a normal part of the record.

20He did what the LORD said was evil, just as his father Manasseh had done.

20And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.

21He lived exactly the way his father had lived. He served the idols his father served, and he worshiped them.

21And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

22He turned away from the LORD, the God of his ancestors, and did not live the way the LORD wanted.

22And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.

23Amon's own officials plotted against him and killed the king in his palace.

23And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.

Note"Servants" here means court officials, not household slaves, the men with access to the king. Assassination by one's own officers is reported several times in Kings.

24But the people of the land killed everyone who had plotted against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

24And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

Note"The people of the land" is a fixed term in Kings for the landowning free citizens of Judah, a body distinct from the palace officials. Here they act against the court conspiracy and secure the succession in the line of David.

25The rest of what Amon did is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

25Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

26He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king after him.

26And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.