³ Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, ^(A)for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,

²⁵ Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

²⁶ Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, ^(A)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, ^(B)as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, ^(C)and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(A)according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places ^(B)that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made ^(C)an Asherah, ^(D)as Ahab king of Israel had done, ^(E)and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (F)And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ^(G)“In Jerusalem will I put my name.” ⁵ And he built altars ^(H)for all the host of heaven in ^(I)the two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (J)And he burned his son as an offering^[a] and ^(K)used fortune-telling and ^(L)omens and dealt ^(M)with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ And the carved image of ^(N)Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, ^(O)and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ^8 (P)And 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 more 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 (Q)“Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things ^(R)more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, ^(S)and has made Judah also to sin ^(T)with his idols,

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Though ^(B)Moses ^(C)and Samuel ^(D)stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! ² And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^3 (F)I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and ^(G)the birds of the air ^(H)and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ^4 (I)And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what ^(J)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.