Common English Bible CEB
The Message Bible MSG
1 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.
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Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.
2 He did what was evil in the LORD's eyes, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
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In God's judgment he was a bad king - an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel.
3 He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, set up altars for Baal, and made a sacred pole, just as Israel's King Ahab had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshipped them.
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He rebuilt all the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and sex goddess Asherah, exactly what Ahaz king of Israel had done. He worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations.
4 He even built altars in the two courtyards of the LORD's temple—the very place the LORD was speaking of when he said: "I will put my name in Jerusalem."
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He even built these pagan altars in The Temple of God, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God's decree ("in Jerusalem I place my Name") to God's Name.
5 Manasseh built altars for all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the LORD's temple.
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And he built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God.
6 He burned his own son alive, consulted sign readers and fortune-tellers, and used mediums and diviners. He did much evil in the LORD's eyes and made him angry.
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He burned his own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortunetelling. He held sŽances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil - in God's judgment, a career in evil. And God was angry.
7 Manasseh set up the carved Asherah image he had made in the temple—the very temple the LORD had spoken about to David and his son Solomon, saying, In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all Israel's tribes, I will put my name forever.
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As a last straw he placed the carved image of the sex goddess Asherah in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God's well-known statement to both David and Solomon, "In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name - exclusively and forever.
8 I will never again remove Israel from the land I gave to their ancestors, provided they carefully do everything I have commanded them—keeping all the Instruction my servant Moses commanded them.
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Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I gave to their ancestors. But here's the condition: They must keep everything I've commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them."
9 But they wouldn't listen. Manasseh led them into doing even more evil than the nations the LORD had wiped out before the Israelites.
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But the people didn't listen. Manasseh led them off the beaten path into practices of evil even exceeding the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed.
10 The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets:
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God, thoroughly fed up, sent word through his servants the prophets:
11 Judah's King Manasseh has done detestable things, things more evil than the Amorites had done before his time. He has caused Judah to sin with his images.
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"Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these outrageous sins, eclipsing the sin-performance of the Amorites before him, setting new records in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a nation of sinners,
12 Because of this, the LORD, Israel's God, has said: I'm about to bring on Jerusalem and Judah such a great disaster that the ears of anyone who hears about it will ring.
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this is my judgment, God's verdict: I, the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah, a doom so terrible that when people hear of it they'll shake their heads in disbelief, saying, 'I can't believe it!'
13 I will stretch out over Jerusalem the same line that I used to measured Samaria and the same mason's level that I used on Ahab's family. I will wipe Jerusalem clean the same way someone wipes a plate clean, wiping it clean then turning it facedown.
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"I'll visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun of Ahab's doom. I'll wipe out Jerusalem as you would wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over to dry.
14 Whatever survives of my inheritance, I'll leave behind, handing them over to their enemies. They will be nothing but plunder and loot for every one of their enemies.
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I'll get rid of what's left of my inheritance, dumping them on their enemies. If their enemies can salvage anything from them, they're welcome to it.
15 This will happen because they have done what is evil in my eyes, making me angry from the day their ancestors left Egypt until this very moment.
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They've been nothing but trouble to me from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit; I won't put up with their evil any longer."
16 Manasseh spilled so much innocent blood that he filled up every corner of Jerusalem with it. And this doesn't include the sins he caused Judah to commit so that they did what was evil in the LORD's eyes.
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The final word on Manasseh was that he was an indiscriminate murderer. He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims. That's on top of all the sins in which he involved his people. As far as God was concerned, he'd turned them into a nation of sinners.
17 The rest of Manasseh's deeds, all that he accomplished, and the sin he committed, aren't they written in the official records of Judah's kings?
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The rest of the life and times of Manasseh, everything he did and his sorry record of sin, is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
18 Manasseh lay down with his ancestors. He was buried in his palace garden, the Uzza Garden. His son Amon succeeded him as king.
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Manasseh died and joined his ancestors. He was buried in the palace garden, the Garden of Uzza. His son Amon became the next king.
19 Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he ruled for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth; she was Haruz's daughter and was from Jotbah.
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Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. She was from Jotbah.
20 He did what was evil in the LORD's eyes, just as his father Manasseh had done.
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In God's opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh.
21 He walked in all the ways his father had walked. He worshipped the same worthless idols his father had worshipped, bowing down to them.
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He followed in the footsteps of his father, serving and worshiping the same foul gods his father had served.
22 He deserted his ancestors' God, the LORD—he didn't walk in the LORD's way.
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He totally deserted the God of his ancestors; he did not live God's way.
23 Amon's officials plotted against him and assassinated the king in his palace.
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Amon's servants revolted and assassinated him, killing the king right in his own palace.
24 The people of the land then executed all those who had plotted against King Amon and made his son Josiah the next king.
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But the people, in their turn, killed the conspirators against King Amon and then crowned Josiah, Amon's son, as king.
25 The rest of Amon's deeds, aren't they written in the official records of Judah's kings?
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The rest of the life and times of Amon is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
26 He was buried in his tomb in the Uzza Garden. His son Josiah succeeded him as king.
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They buried Amon in his burial plot in the Garden of Uzza. His son Josiah became the next king.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.