2 Chronicles 33

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

Twelve years old, was Manasseh when he began to reign, —and, fifty-five years, reigned he 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 the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh, -according to the abominable ways of the nations, whom Yahweh dispossessed from before the sons 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 again built the high places, which Hezekiah his father had thrown down, —and set up altars to the Baalim, and made Sacred Stems, and bowed in prostration unto all the army of the heavens, and served 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.”

and built altars in the house of Yahweh, —as to which Yahweh had said, In Jerusalem, shall be my Name, unto times age-abiding.

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

Yea he built altars unto all the army of the heavens, —in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

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, caused his sons to pass through the fire, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and practised hidden arts and used divination, and practised sorcery, and appointed a necromancer, and a wizard, —he exceeded in doing the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh, 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.

and he set a resemblance-image which he had made, —in the house of God, as to which God had said unto David, and unto 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, unto times age-abiding.

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.”

So will I not again remove the foot of Israel away from the soil which I appointed for their fathers. Only they must observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the regulations, 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].

And so Manasseh led astray Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, —to commit wickedness beyond the nations which Yahweh had destroyed from before the sons of Israel.

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

And Yahweh spake unto Manasseh and unto his people, but they did not give ear.

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.

So Yahweh brought in upon them, the captains of the army that belonged to the king of Assyria, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, —and bound him captive with a pair of bronze fetters, and took him away 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.

But, in his distress, he appeased the face of Yahweh his God, —and humbled himself greatly, 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, when he prayed unto him, then was he entreated of him, and hearkened unto his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem, unto his own kingdom, and so Manasseh came to know, that, Yahweh, is 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.

And, after this, he built an outer wall to the city of David on the west of the Gihon in the ravine, even to the entering in through the fish-gate, and went round to Ophel, and carried it up very high, —and put captains of valour in all the fortified cities, throughout Judah.

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 removed the gods of the foreigner and the image, out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, —and he cast them forth outside 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 built the altar of Yahweh, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings, and thanksgiving sacrifices, -and gave word to Judah to serve Yahweh, God of Israel.

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

Howbeit, still were, the people, sacrificing in the high places, —only unto Yahweh 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 story of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the story of the seers who spake unto him in the name of Yahweh God of Israel, there they are, in the story 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.

both his prayer and how [God] was entreated of him—and all his sin and his treacherous act, and the sites whereon he built high places, and set up the Sacred Stems and the images, before he humbled himself, there they are, written in the story of the seers.

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

And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the garden off his own house, —and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

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

Twenty-two years old, was Amon when he began to reign, —and, two years, reigned he 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 the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had done, —and, unto all the images which Manasseh his father had made, Amon offered sacrifice, and did serve 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.

But he did not humble himself before Yahweh as Manasseh his father humbled himself, —for, he, Amon, made guilt abound.

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

And his servants conspired against him, and put him to death, 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 people of the land smote all the conspirators against King Amon, —and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.