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, and he reigned fifty and 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].

But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had 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.

For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, 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.”

Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which 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 altars 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 caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a medium, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of 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.

And he set a carved image, 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 chosen before 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.”

Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers; provided 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.

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 Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

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

And the LORD spoke to Manasseh, and to his people: but 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 the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him 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 when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD 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 prayed to him: and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he 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.

Now after this he built a wall outside the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate, and surrounded Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war 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.

And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast 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.

And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed on it peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

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

Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, yet to the LORD their God only.

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’.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book 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 how God was entreated by him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings 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 fathers, and they buried him in 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.

Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and 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.

But he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which Manasseh 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 humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.

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