2 Chronicles 33

1 Manasseh is a son of twelve years in his reigning, and he has reigned fifty-five years 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 does evil in the eyes of YHWH, like the abominations of the nations that YHWH dispossessed from the presence of the sons 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 turns and builds the high places that his father Hezekiah has broken down, and raises altars for Ba‘alim, and makes Asherim, and bows himself to all the host of the heavens, and serves 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 has built altars in the house of YHWH of which YHWH had said, “My Name is in Jerusalem for all time.”

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 builds altars for all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of YHWH.

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

6 And he has caused his sons to pass over through fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and observed clouds and used enchantments and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and a wizard; he has multiplied to do evil in the eyes of YHWH, 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 places the carved image of the idol that he made in the house of God, of which God said to David, and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I put My Name for all time,

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 and I do not add to turn aside the foot of Israel from off the ground that I appointed to your fathers, only, if they watch to do all that I have commanded them—to all the 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 And Manasseh causes Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, to do evil above the nations that YHWH destroyed from the presence of the sons 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 YHWH speaks to Manasseh and to his people, and they have not attended,

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

11 and YHWH brings in against them the heads of the host that the king of Asshur has, and they capture Manasseh among the thickets, and bind him with bronze chains, and cause him to go 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 is in distress he has appeased the face of his God YHWH, and is exceedingly humbled 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 prays to Him, and He accepts his plea, and hears his supplication, and brings him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom, and Manasseh knows that He, YHWH, [is] 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 has built an outer wall for the City of David, on the west of Gihon, in the valley, and at the entering in at the Fish Gate, and it has gone around to the tower, and he makes it exceedingly high, and he puts heads of the force in all the cities of the bulwarks in 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 turns aside the gods of the stranger, and the idol, out of the house of YHWH, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of YHWH and in Jerusalem, and casts [them] to the outside of 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 builds the altar of YHWH, and sacrifices on it sacrifices of peace-offerings and thank-offering, and commands to Judah to serve YHWH, 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 but still the people are sacrificing in high places, only—to their God YHWH.

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

18 And the rest of the matters of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the matters of the seers, those speaking to him in the Name of YHWH, God of Israel, behold, they are [on the scroll of] the matters 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 and his prayer, and his plea, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places in which he had built high places, and established the Asherim and the carved images before his being humbled, behold, they are written beside the matters of Hozai.

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 Manasseh lies with his fathers, and they bury him in his own house, and his son Amon reigns in his stead.

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

21 Amon [is] a son of twenty-two years in his reigning, and he has reigned two years in Jerusalem,

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

22 and he does evil in the eyes of YHWH, as his father Manasseh did, and Amon has sacrificed to all the carved images that his father Manasseh had made, and serves them,

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 and has not been humbled before YHWH, like the humbling of his father Manasseh, for Amon himself has multiplied guilt.

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 conspire 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 and the people of the land strike all those conspiring against King Amon, and the people of the land cause his son Josiah to reign 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.