Wednesday Bible Study: Some serious backsliding

I suspect that much or all of Chapter 21 was a later interpolation. It's part of the explanation for why Judah fell to Babylon, even though Josiah (coming soon) restored Torah-based orthodoxy, which was supposed to be the original point of the whole thing. So they inserted the absolutely worst possible king, so that no matter what Josiah did, he couldn't make up for it. (BTW Mademoiselle Hephzibah is the name of the French skunk who was Pogo Possum's occasional love interest.)

21 Manas′seh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Heph′zibah. ² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places which Hezeki′ah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Ba′al, and made an Ashe′rah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “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 burned his son as an offering, and practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ And the graven image of Ashe′rah that he had made he set 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 the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever; ⁸ and I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which 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 Manas′seh seduced them to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

¹⁰ And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, ¹¹ “Because Manas′seh king of Judah has committed these abominations, and has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols; ¹² therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of every one who hears of it will tingle. ¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samar′ia, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ And I will cast off the remnant of my heritage, and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

¹⁶ Moreover Manas′seh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin which he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Manas′seh, and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁸ And Manas′seh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

Amon Reigns over Judah

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshul′lemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manas′seh his father had done. ²¹ He walked in all the way in which his father walked, and served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them; ²² he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. ²³ And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his house. ²⁴ But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josi′ah his son king in his stead. ²⁵ Now 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? ²⁶ And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; and Josi′ah his son reigned in his stead.