Common misinterpretations minimize the horror of Manasseh's acts by portraying child sacrifice as a symbolic purification rite rather than infanticide, or rationalizing his occult practices like enchantments and familiar spirits as benign cultural customs forgivable in context; some erroneously cite it to legitimize modern witchcraft or divination by arguing biblical figures engaged in such, overlooking the text's unequivocal depiction of these as abominations that incited God's wrath and foreshadowed national downfall.
II Kings 21:6
King James Version (1769)
6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
This passage condemns King Manasseh's extreme idolatry and wickedness, highlighted by his practice of child sacrifice—making his son pass through the fire—a direct emulation of pagan Canaanite rituals, alongside divination, sorcery, and consulting mediums and spiritists, all of which provoked God's righteous anger and exemplified the spiritual corruption that led Judah toward divine judgment, underscoring the biblical call to exclusive worship of Yahweh.