2 Kings 20:21-23:30 And Ezekias slept with his fathers, and Manasses his son reigned in his stead.

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ²¹ And Ezekias slept with his fathers, and Manasses his son reigned in his stead. ²¹ ¹ Manasses was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty five years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Apsiba. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all the abominable acts of the nations which the Lord had removed from before Israel. ³ He restored and rebuilt the high places which his father Ezekias had demolished; and erected an altar to Baal; and made bowers as Achab king of Israel had done; and worshipped the whole host of heaven and served them. ⁴ He even built an altar in the house of the Lord. Though the Lord had said, In Jerusalem I will put my name; ⁵ yet he built an altar to the whole host of heaven, in the two courts of the house of the Lord; ⁶ and made his sons pass through fire, and consulted omens, and auguries, and built temples, and multiplied diviners, to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. ⁷ Nay, he placed the graven image of the bower in the very house, concerning which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name forever, ⁸ and I will no more remove the foot of Israel, from the land which I gave their fathers, provided they will keep all that I have commanded, according to the command which my servant Moses commanded them. ⁹ Now when they hearkened not, and Manasses led them astray to do evil in the sight of the Lord, more than those nations, which the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites; ¹⁰ then by the ministry of his servants the1 prophets, the Lord spoke saying, ¹¹ Because Manasses the king of Juda hath committed all these abominations; these evils surpassing all that the Amorites did before him, and hath caused Juda also to sin by their idols; ¹² therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Behold I will bring evils upon Jerusalem and Juda, so that both the ears of every one who heareth them shall tingle. ¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Achab; and wipe Jerusalem as a vessel of alabaster is wiped and turned on its mouth. ¹⁴ And I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall be for a spoil, and for a prey to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done evil in my sight and gone on provoking me from the day I brought them out of Egypt, even to this day. ¹⁶ Moreover Manasses shed innocent blood in great abundance till he filled Jerusalem, from one end to the other, in addition to the sins by which he caused Juda to sin, by doing evil in the sight of the Lord. 2Ki 21: Now the rest of the acts of Manasses and all that he did, and the sins which he committed are they not written in the journal of the kings of Juda?

¹⁸ When Manasses slept with his fathers, he was buried in the garden of his house in the garden of Oza; and Amos his son reigned in his stead. ¹⁹ Amos was twenty two years old, when he began to reign and he reigned two years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Mesollam. She was a daughter of Arus of Jeteba. ²⁰ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasses his father had done, ²¹ and walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols, which his father served and worshipped them. ²² He forsook the Lord God of his fathers and did not walk in the way of the Lord, ²³ therefore Amos' servants conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house. ²⁴ But the people of the land, smote all those who conspired against king Amos. And the people of the land made his son Josias king in his stead. ²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amos and all that he did, behold are they not written in the journal of the kings of Juda? ²⁶ Now when they had buried him in his sepulchre in the garden of Oza, Josias his son reigned in his stead. ²² ¹ Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty one years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Jedia. She was a daughter of Edria of Basuroth. ² He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right nor to the left. ³ Accordingly in the eighteenth year of king Josias in the eighth month, the king sent Sapphan son of Ezelias, son of Mesollam, the scribe of the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴ Go up to Chelkias the high priest and seal the money which is brought into the house of the Lord; which they who keep the weights have received from the people, ⁵ and let it be delivered into the hand of the board of works in the house of the Lord. And when he had given this to the board of works in the house of the Lord to defray the expence of the repairs of the house; ⁶ for the carpenters and the masons, and them who built the walls, and to purchase wood and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house; ⁷ [now they to whom the money was given were not to be called to account, for they acted in confidence] ⁸ Chelkias the high priest said to Sapphan the scribe, I have found a book of the law in the house of the Lord. So Chelkias gave the book to Sapphan; and when he had read it ⁹ he went to the king in the house of the Lord, and having made report to the king, saying, Thy servants have melted the silver found in the house of the Lord, and have given it to the board of works which hath charge of the house; ¹⁰ Sapphan the scribe spake to the king, saying, Chelkias the priest hath given me a book. and Sapphan read it before the king. ¹¹ And when the king heard the words of the book of the law he rent his clothes. ¹² Then the king gave orders to Chelkias the priest and Achikam son of Sapphan and Achobar son of Michaias, and to Sapphan the scribe and Asaias a servant of the king, saying, ¹³ Go and inquire of the Lord concerning me and concerning all this people and concerning all Juda, and concerning the words of this book which is found. For great must be the wrath of the Lord which is kindled against us; because our fathers have not hearkened to the words of this book to do according to all that is written for us. ¹⁴ Accordingly Chelkias the priest went with Achikam and Achobar and Sapphan and Asaias to Olda the prophetess the mother of Sellem son of Thekuan, son of Aras the keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelt at Jerusalem in the Masena. And when they had spoken to her, ¹⁵ she said to them, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Say to the man who hath sent you to me, ¹⁶ Thus saith the Lord, Behold I am bringing evils on this place and on the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Juda hath read. ¹⁷ Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me by the works of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Juda who hath sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, With respect to the words which thou hast heard, ¹⁹ because thy heart was softened and thou didst humble thyself on the account of them soon as thou didst hear what I had spoken against this place and the inhabitants thereof; that they should become a desolation and a curse; and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me; for I heard, saith the Lord; ²⁰ therefore behold I will gather thee to thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, and thy eyes shall not see all the evils which I will bring on this place. When they brought back this answer to the king, ²³ ¹ the king sent and assembled before him all the elders of Juda and Jerusalem. ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, accompanied by all the chiefs of Juda and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the priests and the prophets and all the people small and great. And when he had read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord, ³ the king stood before the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord; to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and with all his soul; to conform to the terms of the covenant, the things written in the book. And all the people joined in the covenant. ⁴ Then the king ordered Chelkias the high priest and the priests of the second order and them who had the charge of the weights, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the utensils which were made for Baal and for the bower and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them without Jerusalem at Sademoth Kedron, and sent the ashes thereof to Baithel. ⁵ He burned also the Chomarims, whom the kings of Juda had appointed. These were they who burned incense on the high places and in the cities of Juda and in the places around Jerusalem. He burned them also, who offered incense to Baal and to the sun and the moon and the signs in the zodiack and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ And lie brought out the bower out of the house of the Lord without Jerusalem to the brook Kedron, and having burned it by the brook Kedron, he ground it to powder, and strewed the powder over the graves of the children of the people. ⁷ He pulled down also the house of Kadesim in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the bower. ⁸ Then he brought up all the priests out of the cities of Juda, and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense from Gaibal to Bersabee. He demolished also the house of the gates which was at the door of the gate of Jesus, the governor of the city, on the left of a man entering at the gate of the city. ⁹ But the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem; for they only eat unleavened bread among their brethren. ¹⁰ He denied also Tapheth which was set apart in the valley of the son of Ennom, for a man to cause his son or his daughter to pass through fire to Moloch. ¹¹ And he burned the houses which the kings of Juda had dedicated to the sun at the entrance of the house of the Lord, at the treasury office of Nathan, the king's chamberlain, at Pharurim. He burned also with fire the chariot of the sun, ¹² and the altars which were on the roof of Achaz's chamber, which the king's of Juda had erected? and he pulled down the altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and having dragged them out thence piece meal, he threw the rubbish of them into the brook Kedron. ¹³ The king defiled also the house which was in front of Jerusalem; that which was on the right of mount Mosthath, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chamos, the abomination of Moab, and for Moloch the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And when he had broken in pieces the pillars, and utterly destroyed the bowers, and filled their places with human bones, ¹⁵ he then tore down also the altar which was at Baithel, that high altar which was erected by Jeroboam, son of Nabat, who had caused Israel to sin. Even that high altar he tore down and broke the stones thereof to pieces and pounded them to dust, and burned the bower. ¹⁶ Now when Josias turned and saw the graves which were there in the city, he sent and took the bones out of the graves and burned them on the altar, and polluted it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God spoke when Jeroboam was standing on the altar at the festival. Then turning he cast his eyes on the tomb of the man of God who spoke these words, ¹⁷ and he said, What monument is that which I see? And when the men of the city said, It is the man of God who came from Juda to denounce, and who denounced these very things against this altar at Baithel; ¹⁸ he said, Let him alone, Let no man move his bones. So his bones escaped with the bones of the prophet, who came from Samaria. ¹⁹ All the houses also of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria; which the kings of Israel had built to provoke the Lord, Josias removed, and did to them all that he had done at Baithel. ²⁰ And when he had sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there over the altars, and burned the bones of men upon them, he returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ Then the king issued orders to all the people, saying, Celebrate the passover to the Lord our God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. ²² For from the days of the Judges who judged Israel, there had not been during all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Juda, ²³ such a passover as this which was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of Josias. ²⁴ For Josias removed all the devotees and the diviners and the theraphins and the idols and all the abominations which were in the land of Juda and in Jerusalem, that he might conform to the words of the law which were written in the book which Chelkias the priest had found in the house of the Lord. ²⁵ Like him there was no king before him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses; nor did there arise after him any one like him. ²⁶ Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the fervency of his great wrath with which he was incensed against Juda at the provocations with which Manasses had provoked him. ²⁷ So the Lord said, I will remove Juda also from my presence as 1 have removed Israel; and I will cast off this city of Jerusalem which I chose, and this house of which I said, My name shall be there. ²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Josias and all that he did, are they not written in the journal of the kings of Juda? ²⁹ In those days when Pharao Nechao king of Egypt was going up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, Josias went out to meet him. And Nechao slew him at Mageddo when he saw him. ³⁰ And his servants took him up mortally wounded at Mageddo and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Joachaz son of Josias and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.