Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

21 ^(A)Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. ^2 (B)He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(C)according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. ³ For ^(D)he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and ^(E)he erected altars for Baal and made an ^[a]Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and ^(F)worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (G)He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “^(H)In Jerusalem I will put My name.” ⁵ For he built altars for ^(I)all the host of heaven in ^(J)the two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (K)He made his son pass through the fire, ^(L)practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. ⁷ Then ^(M)he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “^(N)In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord, “they have ^(A)set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

⁴ Because they have ^(A)forsaken Me and have ^(B)made this an alien place and have burned ^[a]sacrifices in it to ^(C)other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the ^(D)blood of the innocent ⁵ and have built the ^(E)high places of Baal to burn their ^(F)sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My ^[b]mind; ⁶ therefore, behold, ^(G)days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called ^(H)Topheth or ^(I)the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, ^(A)raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this ^(B)idol of jealousy at the entrance.