2 Chronicles 33:1–20

Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah in Judah

^1aManasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

^2aHe did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

³For ^ahe rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; ^bhe also erected altars for the Baals and made ¹Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

^4aHe built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said, “My name shall be ^bin Jerusalem forever.”

⁵For he built altars for all the host of heaven in ^athe two courts of the house of the Lord.

^6aHe made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and ^bdealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

⁷Then he put ^athe carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “^bIn this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;

⁸and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land ^awhich I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses.”

⁹Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

Manasseh’s Idolatry Rebuked

¹⁰The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but ^athey paid no attention.

^11aTherefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with ¹hooks, ^bbound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon.

¹²When ^ahe was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and ^bhumbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

¹³When he prayed to Him, ^aHe was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh ^bknew that the Lord was God.

¹⁴Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of ^aGihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the ^bFish Gate; and he encircled the ^cOphel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵He also ^aremoved the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.

¹⁶He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed ^apeace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁷Nevertheless ^athe people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh even ^ahis prayer to his God, and the words of ^bthe seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of ^cIsrael.

¹⁹His prayer also and ^ahow God was entreated by him, and all his sin, his unfaithfulness, and ^bthe sites on which he built high places and erected the Asherim and the carved images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the records of the ¹Hozai.

²⁰So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And Amon his son became king in his place.