2 Chronicles 33:1–20

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

33^jManasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ²And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to ^kthe abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³For he rebuilt the high places ^lthat his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made ^mAsheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ⁿ“In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” ⁵And he built altars for all the host of heaven in ^othe two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6pAnd he burned his sons as an offering ^qin the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and ^rused fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with ^smediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷And ^tthe carved image of the idol that 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, ⁿI will put my name forever, ⁸and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land ^uthat 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 rules given through Moses.” ⁹Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh’s Repentance

¹⁰The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. ^11vTherefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and ^wbound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. ¹²And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God ^xand humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³He prayed to him, and ^yGod was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. ^zThen Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

¹⁴Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of ^aGihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into ^bthe Fish Gate, and carried it around ^cOphel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. ¹⁵And ^dhe 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. ¹⁶He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. ^17eNevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and ^fhis prayer to his God, and the words of ^gthe seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the ^hChronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁹And his prayer, and how ^yGod was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites ⁱon which he built high places and set up the ⁱAsherim and the images, before ^xhe humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.^{1 20}So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.