^33:11So the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria. They seized Manasseh, put hooks in his nose,¹⁴ bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon. ^33:12In his pain¹⁵ Manasseh¹⁶ asked the Lord his God for mercy¹⁷ and truly¹⁸ humbled himself before the God of his ancestors.¹⁹^33:13When he prayed to the Lord,²⁰ the Lord²¹ responded to him²² and answered favorably²³ his cry for mercy. The Lord²⁴ brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh realized that the Lord is the true God.

^33:14After this Manasseh²⁵ built up the outer wall of the City of David²⁶ on the west side of the Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate and all around the terrace; he made it much higher. He placed army officers in all the fortified cities in Judah.

^33:15He removed the foreign gods and images from the Lord’s temple and all the altars he had built on the hill of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem; he threw them outside the city. ^33:16He erected the altar of the Lord and offered on it peace offerings and thank offerings. He told the people of²⁷ Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. ^33:17The people continued to offer sacrifices at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

^33:18The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the prophets²⁸ spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, are recorded²⁹ in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ^33:19The Annals of the Prophets include his prayer, give an account of how the Lord responded to it, record all his sins and unfaithful acts, and identify the sites where he built high places and erected Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself.³⁰

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Footnotes

14 Heb “and they seized him with hooks.”
15 Or “distress.”
16 Heb “he”; the referent (Manasseh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
17 Heb “appeased the face of the Lord his God.”
18 Or “greatly.”
19 Heb “fathers.”
20 Heb “him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 Heb “was entreated by him,” or “allowed himself to be entreated by him.”
23 Heb “heard.”
24 Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 Heb “he”; the referent (Manasseh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
27 Heb “told Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” here by metonymy for the people of Judah.
28 Or “seers.”
29 Heb “look, they are.”
30 Heb “and his prayer and being entreated by him, and all his sin and his unfaithfulness and the places where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself—behold, they are written on the words of his seers.”