Open English Translation 2 KI Chapter 21

21 Menashsheh was twelve when he became king, and he reigned over Yehudah from Yerushalem for fifty-five years. (His mother was Heftsivah.) 2 He did what Yahweh had said was evil like the evil behaviour of the people groups that Yahweh had driven out of the region ahead of the Israelis.[ref] 3 In fact he went backwards from his father and rebuilt the hilltop shrines that Hizkiyah had destroyed, and he made altars for Baal, and he made an Asherah pole, just like Yisrael’s King Ahab had, and he worshipped the constellations and followed astrology. 4 Also he built altars in Yahweh’s residence, where Yahweh had said, “I will establish my reputation in Yerushalem.”[ref] 5 Menashsheh built altars to all the constellations in the two courts of the temple. 6 He even sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering. He practised divination and read omens, and consulted mediums and fortune-tellers. He did so much that Yahweh had said was evil, provoking Yahweh to get angry. 7 He placed the Asherah idol that he’d made in the temple about which Yahweh had said to David and to his son Shelomoh (Solomon), “I will establish my reputation forever in this house and in Yerushalem in Yehudah, which I’ve chosen out of all the tribes of Yisrael.[ref] 8 If only the Israelis will take care to obey everything that I’ve commanded them, and all the instructions that my servant Mosheh gave them, then I won’t continue to cause them to leave the area that I gave to their ancestors.” 9 But they didn’t listen and Menashsheh led them astray to do more evil things even than the people groups that Yahweh had destroyed as the people had entered the region.

10 So Yahweh announced via his servants the prophets, 11 “Because Yehudah’s King Menashsheh has done such terribly evil things, worse even than the Amorites who were there before him, and because he’s even made Yehudah sin with his idols, 12 then Yisrael’s god Yahweh says: Listen, I’ll bring such terrible disaster to Yehudah including Yerushalem that people won’t even be able to handle hearing the news about it. 13 I’ll use the same tape measure for Yerushalem that I used for Shomron (Samaria), and I’ll use the same plumb line that I used for Ahab’s extended family. I’ll wipe Yerushalem away, just like someone dries a bowl—they wipe it dry and then turn it upside down. 14 I’ll abandon the small remainder of my people here, and I’ll hand them over to their enemies—they’ll become the spoil and plunder of all their enemies, 15 because they’ve done what I told them was evil, and they’ve been making me angry from the time that their ancestors were brought out of Egypt right up to this day.”

16 Menashsheh even poured out so much innocent blood that he filled Yerushalem with it from one side to the other, and that was on top of his other sin of leading Yehudah into doing what Yahweh had said was evil.

17 Everything else that Menashsheh said and did, including the sins that he committed, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 18 Then Menashsheh died and was buried in the palace garden (made by Uzza), and his son Amon replaced him as king.

19 Amon was twenty-two when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for two years. (His mother was Haruts’s daughter Meshullemet from Yotvah.) 20 He did what Yahweh had said was evil, just like his father Menashsheh had done. 21 In fact, he followed everything that his father had done, including serving the same idols and bowing to them. 22 He abandoned Yahweh, the god of his ancestors, and didn’t obey his instructions.

23 But Amon’s servants plotted to assassinate him, and they killed him in the palace. 24 However, the people executed everyone who’d been involved in the conspiracy against King Amon, and they installed his son Yoshiyyah as king in his place.

25 Everything else that Amon said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden made by Uzzah, and his son Yoshiyyah replaced him as king.