At all the illegal places of worship, they sacrificed in the same way as the nations that the Lord had removed from the land ahead of them. They did evil things and made the Lord furious.
They rejected his decrees, the promise he made to their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They went after worthless idols and became as worthless as the idols. They behaved like the nations around them, although the Lord had commanded them not to do that.
(But they wouldn’t obey.) Manasseh misled Israel so that they did more evil things than the nations that the Lord had destroyed when the Israelites arrived in the land.
He burned sacrifices in the valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his son by burning him alive, one of the disgusting things done by the nations that the Lord had forced out of the Israelites’ way.
He did what the Lord considered evil, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the idols his father Manasseh had made, and he worshiped them.
All the officials, the priests, and the people became increasingly unfaithful and followed all the disgusting practices of the nations. Although the Lord had made the temple in Jerusalem holy, they made the temple unclean.
If we break your commandments again and intermarry with people doing these disgusting things, you will become even more angry with us until you finally destroy us and no survivors are left.
I will make these people a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms on the earth. This will happen because of what Judah’s King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, did in Jerusalem.
Then you will know that I am the Lord. You haven’t lived by my laws, and you haven’t obeyed my rules. You have followed the standards set by the nations around you.”
Never worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods, because everything they do for their gods is disgusting to the Lord. He hates it! They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.
These nations you are forcing out listen to fortunetellers and to those who practice black magic. But the Lord your God won’t let you do anything like that.