Study Desk

His servants spoke further against Yahweh God and against His servant Hezekiah.

He also wrote letters to reproach Yahweh, the God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, "As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand."

And Yahweh sent an angel who wiped out every mighty man of valor, ruler, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And he entered the house of his god, and some of his own children caused him to fall there by the sword.

But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.

However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the miraculous sign that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his deeds of lovingkindness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper section of the tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place.

Indeed, he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had torn down; and he erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

He even made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced soothsaying, interpreted omens, practiced sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much that was evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to anger.

Then he put the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

Then Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.

And when he was in distress, he entreated Yahweh his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

Then he prayed to Him, and He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and returned him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, even his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are among the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

His prayer also and how God was entreated by him, and all his sin, his unfaithfulness, and the sites on which he built high places and erected the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the chronicles of the Hozai.

And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And Amon his son became king in his place.

And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had done, and Amon sacrificed to all the graven images which his father Manasseh had made, and he served them.

Moreover, he did not humble himself before Yahweh as his father Manasseh had humbled himself, but Amon multiplied guilt.

Then his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house.