2 Chronicles 33

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

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

2 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].

And he did evil before the Lord, according to all the abominations of the nations, which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel:

3 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.

And he turned, and built again the high places which Ezechias his father had destroyed: and he built altars to Baalim, and made groves, and he adored all the host of heaven, and worshipped them.

4 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.”

He built also altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said: In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.

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

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

6 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.

And he made his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of Benennom: he observed dreams, followed divinations, gave himself up to magic arts, had with him magicians, and enchanters: and he wrought many evils before the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

7 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.

He set also a graven, and a molten statue 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, will I put my name for ever.

8 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.”

And I will not make the foot of Israel to be removed out of the land which I have delivered to their fathers: yet so if they will take heed to do what I hare commanded them, and all the law, and the ceremonies, and judgments by the hand of Moses.

9 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].

So Manasses seduced Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to do evil beyond all the nations, which the Lord had destroyed before the face of the children of Israel.

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

And the Lord spoke to him, and to his people, and they would not hearken.

11 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.

Therefore he brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of the Assyrians: and they took Manasses, and carried him bound with chains and fetters to Babylon.

12 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.

And after that he was in distress he prayed to the Lord his God: and did penance exceedingly before the God of his fathers.

13 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.

And he entreated him, and besought him earnestly: and he heard his prayer, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom, and Manasses knew that the Lord was God.

14 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.

After this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, from the entering in of the fish gate round about to Ophel, and raised it up to a great height: and he appointed captains of the army in all the fenced cities of Juda:

15 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.

And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord: the altars also which he had made in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and he cast them all out of the city.

16 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.

And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed upon it victims, and peace offerings, and praise: and he commanded Juda to serve the Lord the God of Israel.

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

Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places to the Lord their God.

18 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’.

But the rest of the acts of Manasses, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, are contained in the words of the kings of Israel.

19 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.

His prayer also, and his being heard, and all his sins, and contempt, and places wherein he built high places, and set up groves, and statues before he did penance, are written in the words of Hozai.

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

And Manasses slept with his fathers. and they buried him in his house: and his son Amen reigned in his stead.

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

Amen was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

22 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.

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasses his father had done: and he sacrificed to all the idols which Manasses his father had made, and served them.

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

And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasses his father had humbled himself, but committed far greater sins.

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

And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.

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

But the rest of the multitude of the people slew them that had killed Amen, and made Josias his son king in his stead.