2 Kings 21:2-11
21:2 He did evil in the sight of
the
Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations
whom the
Lord drove out from before the Israelites.
21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky
and worshiped
them.
21:4 He built altars in the
Lord’s temple, about which the
Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my home.”
21:5 In the two courtyards of the
Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky.
21:6 He passed his son
through the fire
and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it.
He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the
Lord, provoking him to anger.
21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the
Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.
21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors,
provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”
21:9 But they did not obey,
and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the
Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.
21:10 So the Lord announced through his servants the prophets:
21:11 “King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins. He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols.
Exodus 20:5
20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them,
for I, the
Lord, your God, am a jealous
God, responding to
the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations
of those who reject me,