1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2He did what Yahweh considered evil, following the detestable practices of the nations that Yahweh had driven out before the people of Israel.
3He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down. He also set up altars for the Baals, made Asherah poles, worshiped all the stars in the sky, and served them.
4He built altars in Yahweh’s temple, even though Yahweh had said, “My Name will be in Jerusalem forever.”
5He built altars for all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of Yahweh’s temple.
6He also sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted with mediums and spiritists. He did many evil things in Yahweh’s sight, angering Him.
7He placed the carved image of the idol he had made in God’s temple, about which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will place My Name forever.
8I will no longer remove Israel from the land I appointed for their ancestors, if only they will carefully obey everything I have commanded them, including all the law, statutes, and decrees given through Moses.”
9Manasseh misled Judah and the people of Jerusalem, causing them to do more evil than the nations Yahweh had destroyed before the people of Israel.
10Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.
11Therefore, Yahweh brought the commanders of the Assyrian king’s army against them, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.
12When he was in trouble, he begged Yahweh his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.
13He prayed to God, and God was moved by his prayer. God heard his plea and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh understood that Yahweh was God.
14After this, he built an outer wall for David’s city on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, all the way to the Fish Gate. He surrounded Ophel with it and built it up very high. He also put brave commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.
15He removed the foreign gods and the idol from Yahweh’s house. He also tore down all the altars he had built on the mountain where Yahweh’s house stood, and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city.
16He rebuilt Yahweh’s altar and offered peace offerings and thank offerings on it. He commanded the people of Judah to worship Yahweh, the God of Israel.
17Nevertheless, the people still offered sacrifices at the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.
18The rest of Manasseh’s actions, his prayer to his God, and the words of the prophets who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, are written in the records of the kings of Israel.
19His prayer, how God accepted his plea, all his sin and wrongdoing, and the places where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he became humble, are all written in the history of Hozai.
20Manasseh passed away and was buried in his own house. His son Amon became king in his place.
21Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.
22He did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight, just like his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to and served all the idols that his father Manasseh had made.
23He did not humble himself before Yahweh, as his father Manasseh had done. Instead, Amon committed more and more evil.
24His servants plotted against him and killed him in his own house.
25But the people of the land killed everyone who had plotted against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.