CHAPTER 21 Sep. 15 
Manasseh’s Reign
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. 3For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the host of the sky, and served them. 4He built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh said, I will put My name in Jerusalem. 5He built altars for all the host of the sky in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. 6He made his son to pass through the fire, and practised sorcery, used enchantments and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He worked much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke Him to anger. 7He set the engraved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which Yahweh said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put My name forever; 8neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them. 9But they didn’t listen: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations did whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel. 10Yahweh spoke by His servants the prophets saying, 11Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols; 12therefore thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle. 13I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14I will cast off the remainder of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies. They will become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; 15because they have done that which is evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt even to this day’. 16Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. 17Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 18Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his place. 
Amon’s Reign
19Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. 20He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as Manasseh his father did. 21He walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them: 22and he forsook Yahweh the God of his fathers, and didn’t walk in the way of Yahweh. 23The servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house. 24But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. 25Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

Commentary

21:4,7 Because the Name was called upon the temple, therefore it should have been simply impossible that those who realized this could worship idols in it; whatever has God's Name called upon it, whatever bears His image, must be devoted to Him alone. We who are baptized into His Name, who have that Name called upon us, cannot have idols in our lives.
21:14 I will cast off - God has cast off His people (see too Zech. 10:6); and yet, because a minority of them will always accept Christ, it is not true that God has cast off His people in a total sense (Rom. 11:1). It was only because of this remnant that Israel have not become like Sodom (Rom. 9:29)- even though Old Testament passages such as Ezekiel 16 clearly liken Jerusalem to Sodom. Yet they are not as Sodom ultimately, for the sake of the remnant who will believe. In all this we see the very real tension within God, reflective of His extreme love for His wayward people.
21:16 2 Chron. 33:13,23 describe Manasseh’s repentance and humbling of himself; but that isn’t mentioned in the record here in 2 Kings. We learn from this the importance of comparing Scripture with Scripture in order to build up a more complete picture. Perhaps God wrote the Bible in this way in order to reveal things in truth to those who humbly and sensitively read all His word, and to confuse those who read partially without due reverence toward it.