Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.
Parallel translations
- WEB He built altars in Yahweh’s house, of which Yahweh said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”
- BSB Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
- NKJV He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.”
- NASB He built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”
- NLT He built pagan altars in the Temple of the Lord, the place where the Lord had said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He builds pagan altars within the Lord's own temple, the place God had claimed for His name forever. This was a brazen desecration of God's holy dwelling.
Overview
Placing idolatrous altars in the temple defiled the very house God had set apart (cf. 2 Chronicles 7:16). It was an affront to the Lord's exclusive claim on Jerusalem and His worship. Such profanation of the sacred space marks the depth of Manasseh's rebellion against the covenant God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 2 Chr 7:16For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
- 2 Chr 6:6But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
- 1 Kgs 8:29That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.
- Deut 12:11Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD:
- Jer 7:30For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
- 2 Chr 34:3–4For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
- 2 Chr 33:15And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
- 2 Chr 32:19And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.
- 2 Kgs 21:4–5And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
- 1 Kgs 9:3And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
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Temple, priesthood, and the repeated need for a faithful king who seeks the LORD all point past every imperfect reign to the King and Temple who finally and fully dwell with God's people.
How 2 Chronicles 33:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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