Study Desk

And the Lord spoke to Manasses, and to his people: but they hearkened not.

And when he was afflicted, he sought the face of the Lord his God, and was greatly humbled before the face of the God of his fathers;

and he prayed to him: and he hearkened to him, and listened to his cry, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom: and Manasses knew that the Lord he is God.

And the rest of the acts of Manasses, and his prayer to God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the God of Israel,

behold, they are in the account of his prayer; and God hearkened to him. And all his sins, and his backslidings, and the spots on which he built the high places, and set there groves and graven images, before he repented, behold, they are written in the books of the seers.

And Manasses slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the garden of his house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasses did: and Amon sacrificed to all the idols which his father Manasses had made, and served them.

And he was not humbled before the Lord as his father Manasses was humbled; for his son Amon abounded in transgression.

And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his house.

And the people of the land slew the men who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josias his son king in his stead.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

And in the eighth year of his reign, and he being yet a youth, he began to seek the Lord God of his father David: and in the twelfth year of his reign he began to purge Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the ornaments for the altars, and the molten images.

And he pulled down the altars of Baalim that were before his face, and the high places that were above them; and he cut down the groves, and the graven images, and broke in pieces the molten images, and reduced them to powder, and cast it upon the surface of the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.

And in the eighteenth year of his reign, after having cleansed the land, and the house, he sent Saphan the son of Ezelias, and Maasa prefect of the city, and Juach son of Joachaz his recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the law, that he rent his garments.

And the king stood at a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk before the Lord, to keep his commandments and testimonies, and his ordinances, with all his heart and with all his soul, so as to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

And Josias removed all the abominations out of the whole land which belonged to the children of Israel, and caused all that were found in Jerusalem and in Israel, to serve the Lord their God all his days: he departed not from following the Lord God of his fathers.

And Josias kept a passover to the Lord his God; and sacrificed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

And he told the Levites that were able to act in all Israel, that they should consecrate themselves to the Lord: and they put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built: and the king said, Ye must not carry anything on your shoulders: now then minister to the Lord your God, and to his people Israel.

And prepare yourselves according to the houses of your families, and according to your daily courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and the order by the hand of his son Solomon.