Part 268 (1/2)

33:7. He set also a graven, and a molten statue in the house of G.o.d, of which G.o.d had 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, will I put my name for ever.

33:8. And I will not make the foot of Israel to be removed out of the land which I have delivered to their fathers: yet so if they will take heed to do what I have commanded them, and all the law, and the ceremonies, and judgments by the hand of Moses.

33:9. So Mana.s.ses seduced Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to do evil beyond all the nations, which the Lord had destroyed before the face of the children of Israel.

33:10. And the Lord spoke to his people, and they would not hearken.

33:11. Therefore he brought upon them the captains of he army of the king of the a.s.syrians: and they took Mana.s.ses, and carried him bound with chains and fetters to Babylon.

33:12. And after that he was in distress he prayed to the Lord his G.o.d: and did penance exceedingly before the G.o.d of his fathers.

33:13. And he entreated him, and besought him earnestly: and he heard his prayer, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom, and Mana.s.ses knew that the Lord was G.o.d.

33:14. After this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, from the entering in of the gate round about to Ophel, and raised it up to a great height: and he appointed captains of the army in all the fenced cities of Juda:

33:15. And he took away the strange G.o.ds, and the idol out of the house of the Lord: the altars also which he had made in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and he cast them all out of the city.

33:16. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed upon it victims, and peace offerings, and praise: and he commanded Juda to serve the Lord the G.o.d of Israel.

33:17. Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places to the Lord their G.o.d.

33:18. But the rest of the acts of Mana.s.ses, and his prayer to his G.o.d, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the Lord the G.o.d of Israel, are contained in the words of the kings of Israel.

33:19. His prayer also, and his being heard and all his sins, and contempt, and places wherein he built high places, and set up groves, and statues before he did penance, are written in the words of Hozai.

33:20. And Mana.s.ses slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house: and his son Amon reigned in his stead.

33:21. Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

33:22. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Mana.s.ses his father had done: he sacrificed to all the idols which Mana.s.ses his father had made, and served them.

33:23. And he did not humble himself before the lord, as Mana.s.ses his father had humbled himself, but committed far greater sin.

33:24. And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.

33:25. But the rest of the mult.i.tude of the people slew them that had killed Amon, and made Josias his son king in his stead.

2 Paralipomenon Chapter 34

Josias destroyeth idolatry, repaireth the temple, and reneweth the covenant between G.o.d and the people.

34:1. Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one and thirty years in Jerusalem.

34:2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father: he declined not, neither to the right hand, nor to the left.

34:3. And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was yet a boy, he began to seek the G.o.d of his father David: and in the twelfth year after he began to reign, he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the idols, and the graven things.

34:4. And they broke down before him the altars of Baalim, and demolished the idols that had been set upon them: and he cut down the groves and the graven things, and broke them in pieces: and strewed the fragments upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them.

34:5. And he burnt the bones of the priests on the altars of the idols, and he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem.