Indeed, this happened to Judah at the Lord’s command to remove them from his presence. It was because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all he had done,
While he was still speaking to him, the king asked, ‘Have we made you the king’s counsellor? Stop, why should you lose your life? ’ So the prophet stopped, but he said, ‘I know that God intends to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice.’
Although the Aramean army came with only a few men, the Lord handed over a vast army to them because the people of Judah had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors. So they executed judgement on Joash.
Just as every good thing the Lord your God promised you has come about, so he will bring on you every bad thing until he has annihilated you from this good land the Lord your God has given you.
Just as the Lord was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so he will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be ripped out of the land you are entering to possess.
Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,
‘ “Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Woe to the city of bloodshed, the pot that has corrosion inside it, and its corrosion has not come out of it! Empty it piece by piece; lots should not be cast for its contents.
Finally, the Lord removed Israel from his presence just as he had declared through all his servants the prophets. So Israel has been exiled to Assyria from their homeland to this very day.
Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
Because of the Lord’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
You are to say, “This is what the Lord God says: A city that sheds blood within her walls so that her time of judgement has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled!