2 Chronicles 33

1 Twelve years old was Manasseh when he became king, and fifty and five years did he reign in Jerusalem.

Manasseh was 12 years old when he became the king [of Judah], and he ruled from Jerusalem for 55 years.

2 And he did what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, after the abominable acts of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the children of Israel.

He did many things that Yahweh considered to be evil. He imitated the disgusting things that were formerly done by the people-groups that Yahweh had expelled from Israel as his people advanced [though the land].

3 And he built again the high-places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he erected altars for the Be'alim, and made Asheroth, and bowed himself down to all the host of heaven, and served them.

He commanded his workers to rebuild the shrines [for worshiping idols] that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He told them to set up altars to [honor] the statues of Baal, and to make altars to [honor the goddess] Asherah. He bowed down to [worship] all the stars.

4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.

He directed his workers to build altars [for foreign gods] in the temple, about which Yahweh had said, “It is here in Jerusalem that I want people to worship me, forever.”

5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

He directed that altars for [worshiping] all the stars be built in both of the courtyards outside the temple.

6 And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom: he also observed times, and employed enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with [those of] a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he did much that is evil in the eyes of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

He even sacrificed [some of] his own sons and burned them in a fire in Hinnom Valley. He performed rituals to practice sorcery. He asked fortune-tellers for advice. He performed witchcraft. He talked to people who consulted the spirits of people who had died to find out what would happen in the future. He did many things that Yahweh considered o be very evil, things that caused Yahweh to become very angry.

7 And he placed a carved image of the idol which 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 made choice of out of all the tribes of Israel, will I place my name for ever.

Manasseh took a carved idol [that his workers had made] and put it in the temple. That is the temple concerning which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “My temple will be here in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen [where I want people to] worship me, forever.

8 Nor will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers; but only if they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.

If they will obey all the laws and decrees and regulations that I told Moses to give to them, I will not again force the Israeli people to leave this land that I gave to their ancestors.”

9 But Menasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do worse than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the children of Israel.

But Manasseh led the people of Jerusalem and other places in Judah to do things that are wrong, with the result that they did more evil than was done by the people in the people-groups that Yahweh had expelled as the Israeli people advanced [through the land].

10 And the Lord spoke to Menasseh, and to his people; but they listened not.

Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and the people of Judah, but they paid no attention.

11 Wherefore the Lord brought over them the captains of the army belonging to the king of Assyria: and they took Menasseh prisoner with chains, and bound him with fetters, and led him off to Babylon.

So Yahweh caused the army commanders of Assyria [and their soldiers] to [come to Jerusalem, and they] captured Manasseh. They put a hook in his nose and put bronze chains on his [feet] and took him to Babylon.

12 And when he was in distress, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

There, while he was suffering, he humbled himself greatly in the presence of Yahweh, the God whom his ancestors [worshiped], and pleaded with Yahweh to help him.

13 And he prayed unto him, and he permitted himself to be entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem, unto his kingdom. Then did Menasseh feel conscious that the Lord is indeed the [true] God.

When he prayed, Yahweh heard him and pitied him. So he [allowed him to] return to Jerusalem and [to] rule his kingdom again. Then Manasseh realized that Yahweh is [an all-powerful] God.

14 And after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gichon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the fish-gate, and about the hill-fort, and raised it up to a very great height; and he placed captains of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.

Later, Manasseh’s [workers] rebuilt the eastern section of the outer wall around Jerusalem, and [they] made it higher. That section extended from Gihon Spring [north] to the Fish Gate, and around the part of the city that they called Ophel [Hill]. Manasseh also appointed army officers to guard each of the cities in Judah that had walls around them.

15 And he removed the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and he cast them forth to without the city.

Manasseh’s [workers] removed from the temple the idols and the stone statues of gods of other nations. Manasseh also [told them to] remove the altars that they had previously built on Zion Hill and in [other places in] Jerusalem. He had all those things thrown out of the city.

16 And he rebuilt the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereupon peace-offerings and thanksgiving-offerings, and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord the God of Israel.

Then he [told them to] repair the altar of Yahweh, and he offered sacrifices to restore fellowship with Yahweh and to thank him. And he told [the people of] Judah that they must worship [only] Yahweh.

17 Nevertheless the people sacrificed on the high-places, but only unto the Lord their God.

The people continued to offer sacrifices on the hilltops, but only to Yahweh their God.

18 And the rest of the acts of Menasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, behold, they are in the history of the kings of Israel.

The other things that happened while Manasseh was ruling, including his prayer to God and the messages from Yahweh that the prophets gave to him, are written in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Israel’.

19 His prayer also, and [how God] was entreated of him, and all his sins and his faithlessness, and the places whereon he built high-places, and set up the Asherim and the graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written in the history of Chozai.

What Manasseh prayed and how God pitied him because he pleaded to God, and also his sins and ways in which he disobeyed God, and the [list of] places where he built shrines and set up poles to [honor the goddess] Asherah and other idols [before he humbled himself], are written in what the prophets wrote.

20 And Menasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And Amon his son became king in his stead.

Manasseh died and was buried in his palace. Then his son Amon became the king [of Judah].

21 Two and twenty years old was Amon when he became king, and two years did he reign in Jerusalem.

Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.

22 And he did what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Menasseh his father had done; and unto all the carved images which Menasseh his father had made did Amon sacrifice, and them he served;

He did things that Yahweh considered to be evil, like his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshiped all the idols that Manasseh’s [workers] had made.

23 But he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Menasseh his father had humbled himself; for he, Amon, made his guiltiness great.

But he did not humble himself and turn to Yahweh like his father did. So he became more sinful than his father had been.

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

Then Amon’s officials made plans to kill him. They assassinated him in his palace.

25 But the people of the land slew all those that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

But then the people of Judah killed all those who had assassinated Amon, and they appointed his son Josiah to be their king.