32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his good deeds, behold, sthey are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 33 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, pEsarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
2 And he rdid what was evil in the sight of the Lord, saccording to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had tdestroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and umade an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the vhost of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars win the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, x“In Jerusalem will I put my name.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 And he yburned his son as an offering1 and used zfortune-telling and omens and dealt with amediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 7 And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house bof which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. 8 cAnd I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do dmore evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.
Manasseh’s Idolatry Denounced
10 And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, 12 therefore ethus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster2 that the fears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 And gI will stretch over Jerusalem the hmeasuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”
16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had ifilled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
1 An aoracle concerning bNineveh. The book of the cvision of Nahum of Elkosh.
God’s Wrath Against Nineveh
2 The Lord is a djealous and eavenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The Lord is fslow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
gBashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
hthe hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
iHis wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The Lord is good,
a jstronghold in the day of trouble;
khe knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,1
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the Lord?
He will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
who plotted evil against the Lord,
a worthless counselor.
12 Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 And now lI will break his yoke from off you
and will mburst your bonds apart.”
14 The Lord has given commandment about you:
“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your ngrave, for you are vile.”
15 2 Behold, oupon the mountains, pthe feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for qnever again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.
The Destruction of Nineveh
1 The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;3
collect all your strength.
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
rhis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower4 is set up.
6 The river sgates are opened;
the palace melts away;
7 its mistress5 is stripped;6 she is carried off,
her slave girls lamenting,
moaning tlike doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.7
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
uHearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
vall faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 wBehold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your8 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to the xbloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
no end to the prey!
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and yglittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the zprostitute,
graceful and of deadly acharms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 bBehold, I am against you,
declares the Lord of hosts,
and will clift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your nakedness
and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is Nineveh; dwho will grieve for her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 eAre you better than fThebes9
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 Cush was her strength;
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her10 helpers.
10 Yet gshe became an exile;
she went into captivity;
hher infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men ilots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with jfirst-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
are kwomen in your midst.
The lgates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes11 are like grasshoppers,
your scribes12 like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
mYour people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
nyour wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
oclap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
