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.
Therefore say to them, “This is what the Lord God says: You eat meat with blood in it, you look to your idols, and you shed blood. Should you then receive possession of the land?
because they have abandoned me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their ancestors, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
‘Do not defile the land where you live, for bloodshed defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it.
‘Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable acts #– #worse evil than the Amorites who preceded him had done #– #and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin,
‘ “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.
When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt, thinking, “I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.” This will lead to the destruction of the well-watered land as well as the dry land.
In spite of all that, the Lord did not turn from the fury of his intense burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all the affronts with which Manasseh had angered him.
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!