2 Chronicles 33

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. [a] 2 And he did what was evil before the Lord, after all the detestable things of the nations that the Lord destroyed from before the face of the children of Israel. 3 He turned back and rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had pulled down; and he set up pillars to the Baals, and made sacred groves, and bowed down to all the army of heaven, and served them. [b]

4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem my name will be forever.” 5 And he built altars to all the army of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 And he himself passed his children through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he read signs, and read omens, and used sorceries, and appointed those who consult the dead, and chanters. He did more and more of what was evil before the Lord, provoking him to anger. [d]

7 And he set the carved image and the cast image — the likeness that he 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; [f] 8 and I will not again move the foot of Israel from the land that I gave to their fathers — if only they take care to do all that I commanded them, according to all the law and the decrees and the judgments given by the hand of Moses.” 9 So Manasseh led Judah and those living in Jerusalem astray, to do what was evil beyond all the nations that the Lord had removed from before the children of Israel.

10 And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not listen. 11 And the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria; and they took Manasseh in bonds, and bound him in shackles, and brought him to Babylon. [g] 12 And when he was in distress, he sought the face of the Lord his God, and he was greatly humbled before the face of the God of his fathers; 13 and he prayed to him, and he listened to him. He heard his cry and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom; and Manasseh knew that the Lord — he is God.

14 And after this he built a wall outside the city of David, from the southwest, toward Gihon, in the ravine, and where men go out through the gate that goes round about, and as far as Ophel; and he raised it very high. And he set commanders of the army in all the walled cities in Judah. [h] 15 And he took away the foreign gods, and the carved image, out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and outside the city. 16 And he set the altar of the Lord right again, and offered on it an offering of well-being and of praise, and he told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. [i] 17 Yet the people were still on the high places — only to the Lord their God. [j]

18 And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel — look, they are in the words of [k] 19 his prayer, and how God listened to him; and all his sins, and his turnings away, and the places where he built high places and set up sacred groves and carved images there, before he turned back — look, they are written in the words of the seers. [l] 20 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the garden of his house; and Amon his son reigned in his place.

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22 And he did what was evil before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon sacrificed to all the idols that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. 23 And he was not humbled before the Lord as Manasseh his father had been humbled, for his son Amon multiplied wrongdoing. [m]

24 And his servants conspired against him and struck him down in his own house. 25 And the people of the land struck down those who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.