Study Desk

And the LORD sent an angel who destroyed every warrior, commander, and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And when he had entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him there with the sword.

He made cities for himself and acquired flocks and herds in abundance, because God had given him very great wealth.

Even in the matter of the messengers of the rulers of Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land; God left him alone only to test him, so that He might know everything that was in his heart.

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

When he was in distress, he appeased the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

When he prayed to Him, He was moved by him and heard his pleading, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD alone is God.

He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

However, the people still sacrificed on the high places, although only to the LORD their God.

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

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

For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images, and the cast metal images.

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the secretary, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Then she said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'Tell the man who sent you to Me,

"But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD, this is what you shall say to him: 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: In regard to the words which you have heard,

"Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I have indeed heard you," declares the LORD.

Furthermore, he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand with him. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn from following the LORD God of their fathers.

He also said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the LORD, "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; it will not be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel.

His officers also contributed a voluntary offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the officials of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 from the flocks and three hundred bulls, for the Passover offerings.