2 Chronicles 33

¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

² He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

³ He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down. He set up altars for the Baals, made Asherah poles, bowed down to all the host of heaven, and served them.

⁴ He built altars in the house of the LORD, about which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem my name shall be forever.”

⁵ He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD.

⁶ He made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination, omens, and sorcery, and appointed those who consulted the dead and fortune-tellers. He did much that was evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking his anger.

⁷ He placed the carved image of the idol he had made in the house of God, about which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

⁸ And I will never again remove Israel’s foot from the land I established for your ancestors, if only they are careful to do everything I commanded them: the whole Law, the decrees, and the regulations given through Moses.”

⁹ Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, making them do more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹⁰ The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.

¹¹ So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

¹² When he was in distress, he pleaded with the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.

¹³ He prayed to him, and God was moved by his plea, heard his appeal, and brought him back to Jerusalem and his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

¹⁴ Afterward, he built an outer wall for the City of David, west of Gihon in the valley, as far as the entrance to the Fish Gate. He enclosed Ophel and raised it very high. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵ He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, along with all the altars he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and threw them outside the city.

¹⁶ He rebuilt the altar of the LORD and offered fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it. He commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁷ Even so, the people still offered sacrifices at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.

¹⁸ The rest of Manasseh’s acts, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are recorded in the records of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹ His prayer, how God was moved by his plea, all his sin and unfaithfulness, the places where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and carved images before he humbled himself—all this is written in the records of Hozai.

²⁰ Manasseh rested with his ancestors, and they buried him in his own house. His son Amon reigned in his place.

²¹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

²² He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon offered sacrifices to all the carved images his father Manasseh had made, and served them.

²³ He did not humble himself before the LORD as his father Manasseh had humbled himself. Instead, Amon increased his guilt.

²⁴ His servants conspired against him and killed him in his own house.

²⁵ But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

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