2 Kings 21:1–7

Manasseh Reigns over Judah

²¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.^{* 2}He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, following the abominable practices of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.^{* 3}For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal, made a sacred pole,^y as King Ahab of Israel had done, worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.^{* 4}He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.”^{* 5}He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶He made his son pass through fire; he practiced soothsaying and augury and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.^{* 7}The carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever;^*