¹⁰The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people. But they didn’t pay any attention to him. ¹¹So the Lord brought the army commanders of the king of Assyria against them. They took Manasseh as a prisoner. They put a hook in his nose. They put him in bronze chains. And they took him to Babylon.

¹²When Manasseh was in trouble, he asked the Lord his God to show favor to him. He made himself very low in the sight of the God of his people. ¹³Manasseh prayed to him. When he did, the Lord felt sorry for him. He answered his prayer. He brought him back to Jerusalem and his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

¹⁴After that, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David. It was west of the Gihon spring in the valley. It reached all the way to the entrance of the Fish Gate. It went around the entire hill of Ophel. Manasseh also made the wall much higher. He stationed military commanders in all of the cities in Judah that had high walls around them.

¹⁵Manasseh got rid of the strange gods. He removed the statue of one of those gods from the Lord’s temple. He also removed all of the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem. He threw them out of the city. ¹⁶Then he made the Lord’s altar look like new again. He sacrificed friendship offerings and thank offerings on it. He told the people of Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

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