1
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother was Hephzibah.
2
Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the LORD.
3
He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he built altars for the worship of Baal and made an image of the goddess Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped the stars.
4
He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the LORD had said was where he should be worshiped.
5
In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars.
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He sacrificed his son as a burnt offering. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the LORD and stirred up his anger.
7
He placed the symbol of the goddess Asherah in the Temple, the place about which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon: "Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped.
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And if the people of Israel will obey all my commands and keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them, then I will not allow them to be driven out of the land that I gave to their ancestors."
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But the people of Judah did not obey the LORD, and Manasseh led them to commit even greater sins than those committed by the nations whom the LORD had driven out of the land as his people advanced.
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Through his servants the prophets the LORD said,
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"King Manasseh has done these disgusting things, things far worse than what the Canaanites did; and with his idols he has led the people of Judah into sin.
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So I, the LORD God of Israel, will bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.
13
I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants. I will wipe Jerusalem clean of its people, as clean as a plate that has been wiped and turned upside down.
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I will abandon the people who survive, and will hand them over to their enemies, who will conquer them and plunder their land.
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I will do this to my people because they have sinned against me and have stirred up my anger from the time their ancestors came out of Egypt to this day."
16
Manasseh killed so many innocent people that the streets of Jerusalem were flowing with blood; he did this in addition to leading the people of Judah into idolatry, causing them to sin against the LORD.
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Everything else that Manasseh did, including the sins he committed, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.
18
Manasseh died and was buried in the palace garden, the garden of Uzza, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.
19
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years. His mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz from the town of Jotbah.
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Like his father Manasseh, he sinned against the LORD;
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he imitated his father's actions, and he worshiped the idols that his father had worshiped.
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He rejected the LORD, the God of his ancestors, and disobeyed the LORD's commands.
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Amon's officials plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace.
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The people of Judah killed Amon's assassins and made his son Josiah king.
25
Everything else that Amon did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.
26
Amon was buried in the tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.
1
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.
2
Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the LORD.
3
He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for the worship of Baal, made images of the goddess Asherah, and worshiped the stars.
4
He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the LORD had said was where he should be worshiped forever.
5
In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars.
6
He sacrificed his sons in Hinnom Valley as burnt offerings. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the LORD and stirred up his anger.
7
He placed an image in the Temple, the place about which God had said to David and his son Solomon: "Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped.
8
And if the people of Israel will obey all my commands and keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them, then I will not allow them to be driven out of the land that I gave to their ancestors."
9
Manasseh led the people of Judah to commit even greater sins than those committed by the nations whom the LORD had driven out of the land as his people advanced.
10
Although the LORD warned Manasseh and his people, they refused to listen.
11
So the LORD let the commanders of the Assyrian army invade Judah. They captured Manasseh, stuck hooks in him, put him in chains, and took him to Babylon.
12
In his suffering he became humble, turned to the LORD his God, and begged him for help.
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God accepted Manasseh's prayer and answered it by letting him go back to Jerusalem and rule again. This convinced Manasseh that the LORD was God.
14
After this, Manasseh increased the height of the outer wall on the east side of David's City, from a point in the valley near Gihon Spring north to the Fish Gate and the area of the city called Ophel. He also stationed an army officer in command of a unit of troops in each of the fortified cities of Judah.
15
He removed from the Temple the foreign gods and the image that he had placed there, and the pagan altars that were on the hill where the Temple stood and in other places in Jerusalem; he took all these things outside the city and threw them away.
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He also repaired the altar where the LORD was worshiped, and he sacrificed fellowship offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He commanded all the people of Judah to worship the LORD, the God of Israel.
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Although the people continued to offer sacrifices at other places of worship, they offered them only to the LORD.
18
Everything else that Manasseh did, the prayer he made to his God, and the messages of the prophets who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.
19
The king's prayer and God's answer to it, and an account of the sins he committed before he repented---the evil he did, the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah that he made and the idols that he worshiped---are all recorded in The History of the Prophets.
20
Manasseh died and was buried at the palace, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.
21
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.
22
Like his father Manasseh, he sinned against the LORD, and he worshiped the idols that his father had worshiped.
23
But unlike his father, he did not become humble and turn to the LORD; he was even more sinful than his father had been.
24
Amon's officials plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace.
25
The people of Judah killed Amon's assassins and made his son Josiah king.
1
The Pharisees heard that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John.
2
(Actually, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone; only his disciples did.)
3
So when Jesus heard what was being said, he left Judea and went back to Galilee;
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on his way there he had to go through Samaria.
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In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
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Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the trip, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
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A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink of water."
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(His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
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The woman answered, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan---so how can you ask me for a drink?" (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)
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Jesus answered, "If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water."
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"Sir," the woman said, "you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water?
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It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his children and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?"
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Jesus answered, "Those who drink this water will get thirsty again,
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but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life."
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"Sir," the woman said, "give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water."
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"Go and call your husband," Jesus told her, "and come back."
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"I don't have a husband," she answered. Jesus replied, "You are right when you say you don't have a husband.
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You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth."
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"I see you are a prophet, sir," the woman said.
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"My Samaritan ancestors worshiped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God."
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Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
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You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.
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But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants.
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God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is."
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The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything."
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Jesus answered, "I am he, I who am talking with you."
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At that moment Jesus' disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them said to her, "What do you want?" or asked him, "Why are you talking with her?"
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Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there,
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"Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?"
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So they left the town and went to Jesus.
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In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, "Teacher, have something to eat!"
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But he answered, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
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So the disciples started asking among themselves, "Could somebody have brought him food?"
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"My food," Jesus said to them, "is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do.
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You have a saying, 'Four more months and then the harvest.' But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested!
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The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so the one who plants and the one who reaps will be glad together.
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For the saying is true, 'Someone plants, someone else reaps.'
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I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work."
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Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, "He told me everything I have ever done."
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So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days.
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Many more believed because of his message,
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and they told the woman, "We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world."
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After spending two days there, Jesus left and went to Galilee.
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For he himself had said, "Prophets are not respected in their own country."
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When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him, because they had gone to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything that he had done during the festival.
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Then Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. A government official was there whose son was sick in Capernaum.
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When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to go to Capernaum and heal his son, who was about to die.
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Jesus said to him, "None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders."
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"Sir," replied the official, "come with me before my child dies."
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Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live!" The man believed Jesus' words and went.
51
On his way home his servants met him with the news, "Your boy is going to live!"
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He asked them what time it was when his son got better, and they answered, "It was one o'clock yesterday afternoon when the fever left him."
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Then the father remembered that it was at that very hour when Jesus had told him, "Your son will live." So he and all his family believed.
54
This was the second miracle that Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
