2 Kings 20:21-23:30 Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ²¹ Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place. ²¹ ¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother's name was Hephzibah. ² He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to the detestable things of the nations that the LORD had driven out from the presence of the Israelites. ³ He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal, crafted an Asherah, just as King Ahab of Israel had done, and worshipped and served the stars of heaven. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, In Jerusalem I will put My name. ⁵ He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the LORD’s house. ⁶ He made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced sorcery, and practiced divination, and consulted mediums, and spiritists: he worked much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. ⁷ He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ⁸ And I will not again make the feet of Israel wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they observe to do all that I commanded them, and to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them. ⁹ But they would not listen. Manasseh led them astray to practice more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed in the presence of the Israelites. ¹⁰ the LORD said through his servants the prophets: ¹¹ "Manasseh king of Judah committed detestable sins. He did more evil than all the Amorites before him. He enticed Judah to do evil with his false gods. ¹² therefore this is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'Look! I'm going to bring such a disaster to Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of those who hear about it will ring. ¹³ I'll stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line that is Samaria and the plumb line that is Ahab's dynasty. Then I'll wipe Jerusalem like one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down! ¹⁴ I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will become a prey and a plunder to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done evil in My eyes, and have provoked Me to anger from the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day. ¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem from one end to another, apart from his sin which he caused Judah to sin by doing evil in the eyes of the LORD. ¹⁷ Now, the rest of the story of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he committed, are, they, not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁸ 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 place. ¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for two years. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did, ²¹ He walked in all of the way which his father had walked, and he served the idols which his father had served and bowed down to them. ²² and he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. ²³ The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his palace. ²⁴ But the people of the land killed all who conspired against the king and made Josiah his son king in his place. ²⁵ And the rest of the acts of Amon, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²⁶ He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place. ²² ¹ Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³ And the eighteenth year of his reign king Josiah sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe to the house of the LORD, saying, ⁴ Go up to Hilkijah the high priest, that he may sum up the money which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have gathered of the people, ⁵ Have them deliver it to the workmen who are supervising the LORD's temple, so that they may pay it over to the workmen who serve in the LORD's temple to repair its damages, ⁶ to the carpenters and the builders and the masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. ⁷ Only they did not call them to account for the money that was given to them, because they dealt faithfully. ⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the temple of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ The scribe Shaphan reported to the king: "We have taken the money donated in the temple and have given it to the workmen who are in charge of the LORD's House." ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the scribe informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." Then Shaphan read from it in the king's presence. ¹¹ When the king had heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. ¹² The king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, ¹³ “Go inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the LORD's wrath that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us.” ¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quart ¹⁵ She told them: "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Tell the man who sent you to me: ¹⁶ 'This is what the LORD says: "I am going to bring disaster on this place and on the people living here. This is according to everything written in the book that the king of Judah has read. ¹⁷ Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, tell him, “the LORD the God of Israel says, 'Concerning the words which you have heard, ¹⁹ because your heart was tender and you have humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its people (that they should become a waste and a curse, and have torn your clothes and wept before Me), I have heard you, says the LORD. ²⁰ 'Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.'”'” So they brought this message back to the king. ²³ ¹ Then the king sent for all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to join him. ² And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, from the smallest to the greatest; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD. ³ The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people agreed to the covenant. ⁴ The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the secondary order, and the doorkeepers to take out of the LORD's temple all of the implements that had been crafted for Baal, for Asherah, and for every star in the heavens. Then he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He brought the Asherah from the LORD's temple to the Kidron Brook outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Kidron brook, pulverized the ashes to dust, and scattered it over the graves of the common people. ⁷ He tore down the shrines of the male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple of the LORD, where the women were weaving shrines for the Asherah. ⁸ Then he brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests from Geba up to Beersheba burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on the left of each gate of the city. ⁹ However the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom: that no man should consecrate there his son, or his daughter, through fire, to Moloch. ¹¹ He also removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the worship of the sun. He burned the chariots used in this worship. ¹² The altars which were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of the LORD, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron. ¹³ The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon. ¹⁴ He also broke into pieces the stone pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and covered their sites with human bones. ¹⁵ And also the altar that was in Bethel. the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat had made by which he made Israel to sin, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place; he ground it into powder, and burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which were there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar. Thus he defiled them according to the word of the LORD that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, "What monument is that which I see?" The men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel." ¹⁸ And he said, Let him rest: no man shall disturb his bones. So they saved his bones, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ Josiah removed all the houses of the high places the kings of Israel built in the towns of Samaria. This provoked the LORD to anger and he did with them as he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ He killed all the priests of the high places on the altars. Their bones were burned on the altars. Then the king went back to Jerusalem. ²¹ The king commanded all the people saying, Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the 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 but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was held to the LORD in Jerusalem. ²⁴ Moreover, the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods and the idols, and all of the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah removed in order to establish the words of the law written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the temple of the LORD. ²⁵ Never before had there been a king like him, turning to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his power, as the law of Moses says; and after him there was no king like him. ²⁶ Even so, the LORD did not turn away from his fierce and great anger that burned against Judah because of everything with which Manasseh 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 Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²⁹ During his reign, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, marched out toward the Euphrates River to meet the king of Assyria. King Josiah went out to engage him in battle, but Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him. ³⁰ So his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.