Add parallel Print Page Options

Manasseh’s Reign over Judah

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother[a] was Hephzibah. He did evil in the sight of[b] the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations[c] whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky[d] and worshiped[e] them. He built altars in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my home.”[f] In the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. He passed his son[g] through the fire[h] and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it.[i] He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.[j] He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.[k]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 21:1 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
  2. 2 Kings 21:2 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  3. 2 Kings 21:2 tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”
  4. 2 Kings 21:3 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.
  5. 2 Kings 21:3 tn Or “served.”
  6. 2 Kings 21:4 tn Heb “In Jerusalem I will place my name.”
  7. 2 Kings 21:6 tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.
  8. 2 Kings 21:6 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
  9. 2 Kings 21:6 tn Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (ʾov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (baʿalat ʾov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew, ʾÔḆJBL 86 (1967), 385-401.
  10. 2 Kings 21:6 tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the MT by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).
  11. 2 Kings 21:7 tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”