MELAKIM 2-21

1 Menashsheh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Ḥephtsiḇah.

2 And he did evil in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, according to the abominations of the gentiles whom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 dispossessed before the children of Yisra’ĕl.

3 For he turned and built the high places which Ḥizqiyahu his father had destroyed, and raised up altars for Ba’al, and made an Ashĕrah, as Aḥaḇ sovereign of Yisra’ĕl had done, and he bowed himself to all the host of the shamayim and served them.

4 And he built altars in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, of which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had said, “In Yerushalayim I put My Name.”

5 And he built altars for all the host of the shamayim in the two courtyards of the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and practised magic, and used divination, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, to provoke.

7 And he placed a carved image of Ashĕrah that he had made in the House of which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had said to Dawiḏ and to Shelomoh his son, “In this House and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Yisra’ĕl, I put My Name forever,

8 and no more shall I cause the feet of Yisra’ĕl to move from the land which I gave their fathers – only if they guard to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Torah that My servant Mosheh commanded them.”

9 But they did not obey, and Menashsheh led them astray to do more evil than the gentiles whom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had destroyed before the children of Yisra’ĕl.

10 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 spoke by His servants the neḇi’im, saying,

11 “Because Menashsheh sovereign of Yahuḏah has done these abominations, having done more evil than all the Amorites who were before him, and also made Yahuḏah sin with his idols,

12 therefore thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘See, I am bringing such evil upon Yerushalayim and Yahuḏah that both ears of those who hear of it shall tingle.

13 ‘And I shall stretch over Yerushalayim the measuring line of Shomeron and the plummet of the house of Aḥaḇ, and shall wipe Yerushalayim as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

14 ‘And I shall forsake the remnant of My inheritance and give them into the hand of their enemies. And they shall be for a prey and for a plunder to all their enemies,

15 because they have done evil in My eyes, and have provoked Me since the day their fathers came out of Mitsrayim, even to this day.’ ”

16 And also, Menashsheh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Yerushalayim from one end to another, besides his sin with which he made Yahuḏah sin, in doing evil in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

17 And the rest of the acts of Menashsheh, and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yahuḏah?

18 So Menashsheh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And his son Amon reigned in his place.

19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Yerushalayim. And the name of his mother was Meshullemeth the daughter of Ḥaruts of Yoteḇah.

20 And he did evil in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, as his father Menashsheh had done,

21 and walked in all the ways that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served, and bowed himself to them,

22 and forsook 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 Elohim of his fathers, and did not walk in the Way of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the sovereign in his own house.

24 But the people of the land smote all those who had conspired against Sovereign Amon, and the people of the land appointed his son Yoshiyahu to reign in his place.

25 And the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yahuḏah?

26 And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. And his son Yoshiyahu reigned in his place.