Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

2 Kings 20
¹⁸ Some of your very own sons will be taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon’s king.”
¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “This message you have given me from the LORD is good.” For the king was thinking, “At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime.”
²⁰ The rest of the events in Hezekiah’s reign, including the extent of his power and how he built a pool and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
²¹ Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh became the next king.
2 Kings 21
¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother was Hephzibah.
² He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.
³ He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father, Hezekiah, had destroyed. He constructed altars for Baal and set up an Asherah pole, just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them.
⁴ He built pagan altars in the Temple of the LORD, the place where the LORD had said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
⁵ He built these altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the LORD’s Temple.
⁶ Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire. He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the LORD’s sight, arousing his anger.
⁷ Manasseh even made a carved image of Asherah and set it up in the Temple, the very place where the LORD had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel.