2 Chronicles 33

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

2He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out before the sons of Israel.

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

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

5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

6He made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, practiced soothsaying and divination and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He multiplied doing what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.

7He put the carved image, the idol that he had made, in the house of God, of which God had 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, I will put my name forever.”

8And I will no longer remove the foot of Israel from upon the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they are careful to do all that I commanded them, according to all the law and the statutes and the judgments given through Moses.

9So Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom Yahweh had destroyed before the sons of Israel.

10And Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not listen.

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

12And when he was in distress, he sought the favor of Yahweh his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

13He prayed to him, and he was moved by his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh is God.

14After this he built an outer wall for the city of David, west of Gihon in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; it went around Ophel, and he made it very high. He also placed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.

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

16Then he restored the altar of Yahweh and sacrificed on it sacrifices of peace offerings and thanksgiving, and he told Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel.

17Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.

18The rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel—behold, they are written among the records of the kings of Israel.

19And his prayer, and how he was entreated, and all his sin and his unfaithfulness, and the places where he built high places and set up the Asherim and the carved images before he humbled himself—behold, they are written in the records of the seers.

20And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house. And Amon his son reigned in his place.

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

22He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, just as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved images that Manasseh his father had made and served them.

23But he did not humble himself before Yahweh as his father Manasseh humbled himself, for he, Amon, increased guilt.

24And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house.

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