Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 107
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C hronicles – E Z R A – N E H E M I A H
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Hezekiah was very wealthy and highly honored. He built special treasury buildings for his silver, gold, precious stones, and spices, and for his
shields and other valuable items. He also constructed many storehouses
for his grain, new wine, and olive oil; and he made many stalls for his
cattle and pens for his flocks of sheep and goats. He built many towns
and acquired vast flocks and herds, for God had given him great wealth.
He blocked up the upper spring of Gihon and brought the water down
through a tunnel to the west side of the City of David. And so he succeeded in everything he did.
However, when ambassadors arrived from Babylon to ask about the
remarkable events that had taken place in the land, God withdrew from
Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart.
The rest of the events in Hezekiah’s reign and his acts of devotion are
recorded in The Vision of the Prophet Isaiah Son of Amoz, which is included in The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. When Hezekiah died,
he was buried in the upper area of the royal cemetery, and all Judah and
Jerusalem honored him at his death. And his son Manasseh became the
next king.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in
Jerusalem fifty-five years. 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.
He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father, Hezekiah, had broken down. He
constructed altars for the images of Baal and set up Asherah poles. He also
bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them.
He built pagan altars in the Temple of the Lord, the place where the
Lord had said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” He built these
altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the Lord’s
Temple. Manasseh also sacrificed his own sons in the fire in the valley
of B
en-Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and he
consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the
Lord’s sight, arousing his anger.
Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in God’s
Temple, the very place where God 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. If the Israelites will
be careful to obey my c ommands—all the laws, decrees, and regulations
given through Moses—I will not send them into exile from this land that
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