2 Chronicles 33

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

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; 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].

He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, like the disgusting things of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out before the people 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.

For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars for the Baals, he made Asherah poles, and he bowed down to all the stars of heaven and worshiped 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.”

Manasseh built altars in the house of Yahweh, although Yahweh had commanded, “It is in Jerusalem that my name will be forever.”

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

He built altars for all the stars of heaven in the two courtyards 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.

In the Valley of Ben Hinnom he caused his sons to pass through the fire. He practiced sorcery, divination and he read omens, and he consulted with those who talked with the dead and with those who talked with spirits. Manasseh did much evil in the sight of Yahweh, and he provoked 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.

The carved figure he had made, he placed it in the house of God. It was about this house that God had spoken to David and Solomon his son; he had said, “It is in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, that I will put my name forever.

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.”

I will not move the people of Israel any more out of the land that I assigned to their ancestors, if they will only be careful to keep all that I have commanded them, following all the law, statutes, and decrees which I gave them through 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].

Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do evil even more than the nations that Yahweh had destroyed before the people of Israel.

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

Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people, but they paid no attention.

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 on them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and took him off 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.

When Manasseh was in distress, he implored Yahweh, his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.

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.

He prayed to him; and God was begged by him, and God heard his begging and brought him back to Jerusalem, into his kingship. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh 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, Manasseh built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, to the entrance at the Fish Gate. He surrounded the hill of Ophel with it and raised the wall up to a very great height. He put courageous commanders in all the fortified cities of 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.

He took away the foreign gods, the idol out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of Yahweh and in Jerusalem, and threw them 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.

He rebuilt the altar of Yahweh and offered on it sacrifices of fellowship offerings and thank offerings; he commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel.

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

However, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to 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’.

As to the other matters concerning Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the deeds 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.

In that account there is history of his prayer, and how God was moved by it. There is also an account of all his sin and his trespasses, and the places where he had built high places and set up the Asherah poles and the carved figures, before he humbled himself—they are written about in the Chronicles of the Seers.

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

So Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in his own house. Amon, his son, became king in his place.

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

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; 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.

He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as Manasseh, his father, had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved figures that Manasseh his father had made, and he worshiped 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.

He did not humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had done. Instead, this same Amon trespassed more and more.

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

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 killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made Josiah, his son, king in his place.