Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other; besides his sin he caused Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord.
“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, things more evil than all that the Amorites did, and has also caused Judah to sin with his idols,
He put a carved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.
I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Because they have forsaken Me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocent,
Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that I should remove it from before My face,
if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your harm,
You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed and have defiled yourself with your idols which you have made. And you have caused your day to draw near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all countries.
But righteous men shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.
Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city is full of perverseness, for they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’
So you will not defile the land which you are in, because blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him that shed it.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins, while destitute, afflicted, and tormented.