- 1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzi-bah.
- 2And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
- 3For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
- 4And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
- 5And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
- 6And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
- 7And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
- 8Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
- 9But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
- 10 And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,
- 11Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:
- 12Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.
- 13And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
- 14And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
- 15Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.
- 16Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
- 18And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
- 19 Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
- 20And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.
- 21And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:
- 22And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
- 23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.
- 24And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
- 25Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
- 26And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.
KING JAMES VERSION
2 KINGS 21
Read the chapter, follow a linked verse, and continue into related Watchman 33 teaching.
CHAPTER VISUAL
2 Kings 21 — Manasseh reverses reform, fills Jerusalem with idolatry and innocent blood, and brings an irrevocable word of judgment.
About this illustration
Corrupted temple space and discarded covenant symbols communicate the reign’s spiritual violence. Child sacrifice, occult rites, and innocent deaths are not enacted visually, and the idol has no supernatural grandeur.
Scripture basis: 2 Kings 21:1–26King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom
EXPLORE THE MESSAGE
Related Watchman 33 Resources
Archaeological Evidence
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Approximately 673–672 BC
Esarhaddon Prisms Listing Manasseh of Judah
Esarhaddon's palace-building inscriptions name Manasseh king of Judah among twenty-two western and Cypriot rulers ordered to send building materials to Nineveh, securely placing Judah within Assyria's vassal network.
2 Kings 21:1–18 · 2 Chronicles 33:1–20
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Late ninth–early eighth century BC
The Kuntillet Ajrud Inscriptions
Ink inscriptions and drawings from a short-lived eighth-century desert station invoke ‘Yahweh of Samaria,’ ‘Yahweh of Teman,’ and ‘his asherah.’ They expose regional Yahwistic blessing practices while leaving the identity of asherah, the function of the site, and the relation of nearby images contested.
2 Kings 17:7–18 · 2 Kings 21:3–7 · Deuteronomy 16:21
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Late eighth–early seventh century BC
The Khirbet el-Qom Inscription
A difficult late-eighth- or early-seventh-century BC tomb graffito blesses Uriyahu by Yahweh and invokes the much-debated phrase ‘his asherah,’ offering rare evidence for personal Judahite religion while resisting any simple reconstruction of what the writer believed.
Deuteronomy 16:21 · 2 Kings 21:7 · 2 Kings 23:4–7
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Seventh century BC, reign of Ashurbanipal (668–ca. 627 BC)
Ashurbanipal’s Prism C and Manasseh of Judah
A fragmentary clay prism of Ashurbanipal lists Manasseh of Judah among western kings compelled to support Assyria's Egyptian campaign, independently extending his extrabiblical attestation into a second reign.
2 Kings 21:1–18 · 2 Chronicles 33:1–20