2 Chronicles 33:1–9

JUDAH’S KING MANASSEH

33Manasseh was twelve years old^s when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ²He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^{t 3}He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down^u and reestablished the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served them. ⁴He built altars^v in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where my name will remain forever.”^{w 5}He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards^x of the Lord’s temple. ⁶He passed his sons through the fire in Ben Hinnom Valley.^y He practiced witchcraft, divination, and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists.^z He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.

⁷Manasseh^aa set up a carved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s temple^ab that God had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever^ac in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.^{ad 8}I will never again remove the feet of the Israelites from the land where I stationed your^a ancestors,^b if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them through Moses—all the law, statutes, and judgments.” ⁹So Manasseh caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.