-Judah-

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, look, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the best of the tombs of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

And Manasseh built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he practiced sorcery, and used fortune telling, and used witchcraft, and dealt with mediums, and with spiritists: he did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

And he set a carved image, the idol that he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever." So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

-Nahum-

The burden of Nineveh…the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. "The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yes, the world, and all that live in it.

"Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place of it, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

"What do you imagine against the LORD? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time."

And the LORD spoke to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not listen. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

And when Manasseh was in affliction, he sought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and God was appealed to of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.

And Manasseh took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed on it peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. Then Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his place. Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and reigned two years in Jerusalem.

But he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them; And humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more. And his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house. But the people of the land killed all them that had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned neither to the right hand, nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molded images.

And they broke down the altars of Baalim in Josiah’s presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molded images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strew it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And Josiah burned the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

And so did Josiah in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali…. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

REFERENCES

2 Chronicles 32:32-33; 2 Chronicles 33:1-3, 5-7, 9; Nahum 1:1,3, 5-9; 2 Chronicles 33:10-13, 15-16, 20-25; 2 Chronicles 34:1-7.

CHAPTER 49