[1] Manas'seh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
fifty-five years in Jerusalem. [2] He did what was evil in the sight of the
LORD, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD
drove out before the people of Israel. [3] For he rebuilt the high places
which his father Hezeki'ah had broken down, and erected altars to the
Ba'als, and made Ashe'rahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and
served them. [4] And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the
LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever." [5] And he built
altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the
LORD. [6] And he burned his sons as an offering in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, and practiced soothsaying and augury and sorcery, and dealt with
mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD,
provoking him to anger. [7] And the image of the idol which he had made he
set in the house of God, of which God 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, I will put my name for ever; [8] and I will no more remove the
foot of Israel from the land which I appointed for your fathers, if only
they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the
statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses." [9] Manas'seh seduced
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the
nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel. [10] The LORD
spoke to Manas'seh and to his people, but they gave no heed. [11] Therefore
the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of
Assyria, who took Manas'seh with hooks and bound him with fetters of bronze
and brought him to Babylon. [12] And when he was in distress he entreated
the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of
his fathers. [13] He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty and heard
his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then
Manas'seh knew that the LORD was God. [14] Afterwards he built an outer
wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the
entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it round Ophel, and raised it to a
very great height; he also put commanders of the army in all the fortified
cities in Judah. [15] And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from
the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain
of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the
city. [16] He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered upon it
sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving; and he commanded Judah
to serve the LORD the God of Israel. [17] Nevertheless the people still
sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God. [18] Now the
rest of the acts of Manas'seh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of
the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD the God of Israel,
behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. [19] And his
prayer, and how God received his entreaty, and all his sin and his
faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the
Ashe'rim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are
written in the Chronicles of the Seers. [20] So Manas'seh slept with his
fathers, and they buried him in his house; and Amon his son reigned in his
stead. [21] Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned two years in Jerusalem. [22] He did what was evil in the sight of
the LORD, as Manas'seh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the
images that Manas'seh his father had made, and served them. [23] And he did
not humble himself before the LORD, as Manas'seh his father had humbled
himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. [24] And his servants
conspired against him and killed him in his house. [25] But the people of
the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon; and the people
of the land made Josi'ah his son king in his stead.
