Ahaz Reigns in Judah

1 ^qIn the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, ^rAhaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he ^swalked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even ^tburned his son as an offering,^{1 u}according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and ^von the hills and under every green tree.

Exile Because of Idolatry

7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, ^xwho had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and ^ywalked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, ^zand in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, ^afrom watchtower to fortified city. 10 ^bThey set up for themselves ^cpillars and ^dAsherim ^eon every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they ^fmade offerings on all the high places, ^gas the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, 12 and they served idols, ^hof which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” 13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every ⁱseer, saying, ^j“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

14 But they would not listen, but were ^kstubborn, as their fathers had been, ^lwho did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They ^mwent after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, ⁿconcerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and ^omade for themselves metal images of two calves; and they ^pmade an Asherah and ^qworshiped all the host of heaven and ^rserved Baal. 17 And they ^sburned their sons and their daughters as offerings¹ and used ^tdivination and ^uomens and ^vsold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and ^wremoved them out of his sight. None was left ^xbut the tribe of Judah only.

19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but ^ywalked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of ^zplunderers, until he had ^acast them out of his sight.

21 When he had ^btorn Israel from the house of David, ^cthey made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and ^dmade them commit great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. ^eThey did not depart from them, 23 until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria ^funtil this day.

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

1 ^qManasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 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.