2 Chronicles 33

¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

² He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

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

⁴ He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, 'My name will be in Jerusalem forever.'

⁵ In both courtyards of the temple of the LORD he built altars to all the host of heaven.

⁶ He made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, divination, and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

⁷ He took the carved image he had made and set it in the temple of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, 'In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

⁸ I will not again remove the feet of Israel from the land I appointed for your ancestors, if only they are careful to do everything I have commanded them — the whole Law, the decrees, and the regulations given through Moses.'

⁹ But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did 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 in bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹² In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself deeply before the God of his ancestors.

¹³ He prayed to him, and the LORD was moved by his plea and listened to his cry for mercy. So he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

¹⁴ Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and around the hill of Ophel, and he made it much higher. He also stationed army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵ He removed the foreign gods and the image from the temple of the LORD, along with all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem, and he threw them out of the city.

¹⁶ Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and he told Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁷ The people, however, still sacrificed at the high places, though only to the LORD their God.

¹⁸ The rest of the events of Manasseh's reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are written in the records of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹ His prayer and how God was moved by it, all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites 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 was buried in his palace. And his son Amon succeeded him as king.

²¹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.

²² He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved images his father Manasseh had made, and he served them.

²³ But he did not humble himself before the LORD as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; instead, Amon piled guilt upon guilt.

²⁴ His officials conspired against him and killed him in his palace.

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