2 Kings 21
Manasseh becomes Judah’s king, leads Judah astray
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mom was Hephzibah. He did what was evil in the Existing One’s sight, just like the despicable practices of the indigenous people who the Existing One drove out before Israel. He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, just like King Ahab had done is Israel. He worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the Existing One’s house, even though the Existing One had said, “I’ll establish my name in Jerusalem.” He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the courtyards of the Existing One’s house. He even burned his own son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did a lot of evil in the Existing One’s sight, which made him angry. He took the carved image of Asherah that he made and placed it in the same house that the Existing One told David and Solomon, “I will forever put my name in this house and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all of Israel’s tribes. I won’t cause Israel’s feet to wander out of the land I gave their forefathers as long as they are careful to live according to the rules my servant Moses gave them.” But they didn’t listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do even more evil than the nations who the Existing One destroyed in that land before Israel.
God promises Judah’s destruction
And by his servants the prophets, the Existing One said, “Because Judah’s King Manasseh has committed these abominations and has done things even more evil than the Amorites before him, also causing Judah to sin with his idols, this is what Israel’s God the Exising One says: The disaster that I’m bringing on Jerusalem and Judah will be so big that the ears of anyone who hears it will tingle. I’ll stretch Samaria’s measuring tape and Ahab’s plumb line
over Jerusalem, and I’ll wipe out Jerusalem like someone wipes up a plate and turns it upside down. I’ll reject what remains of my heritage and hand them over to their enemies. They’ll become like prey and loot to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my sight and have really made me furious from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt all the way up till today.”
On top of that, Manasseh had caused so much innocent bloodshed, that it filled Jerusalem from one end to another. And that wasn’t even including the sin that he led Judah in, causing them to do what was evil in the Existing One’s sight.
The rest of Manasseh’s history including everything he did, and the abominations he committed are recorded in the book The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Manasseh slept with his fathers in the ground and was buried in the garden of his house built by Uzza, and his son Amon reigned in his place.
Amon becomes Judah’s king, gets assassinated
Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for two years from Jerusalem. His mom was Meshullemeth (the daughter of Haruz from Jotbath). He did what was evil in the sight of the Existing One, just like Manasseh his father had done. He walked in all the ways his father did, serving and worshiping the same idols that his father did. He abandoned the Existing One, the God of his forefathers, and didn’t walk in the way of the Existing One. Amon’s servants plotted against him and put the king to death in his own house. But the common people killed everyone who had plotted against King Amon, and they put his son Josiah on the throne in his place. The rest of the Amon’s history is recorded in the book The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. He was buried in his tomb in Uzza’s garden, and his son Josiah reigned in his place.