1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2He did what Yahweh considered evil, following the disgusting practices of the nations that Yahweh had driven out before the people of Israel.
3He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, just as Ahab, the king of Israel, had done. He worshiped and served all the stars and planets.
4He built altars in Yahweh’s temple, the place about which Yahweh had said, “I will make my name known in Jerusalem.”
5He built altars for all the stars and planets in both courtyards of Yahweh’s temple.
6He sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced magic, used divination, and consulted with mediums and sorcerers. He did many evil things in Yahweh’s sight, making him furious.
7He put the carved image of Asherah that he had made in the temple. Yahweh had told David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will make my name known forever.
8I will no longer allow the people of Israel to wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will carefully obey all that I have commanded them and all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.”
9But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them to do more evil than the nations Yahweh had destroyed before the people of Israel.
10Yahweh spoke through his servants, the prophets, saying,
11“Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed these detestable acts, doing more wickedness than all the Amorites who were here before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols,
12therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘Look, I am bringing such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be shocked.
13I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used for Samaria and the plum bob used for Ahab’s house. I will wipe Jerusalem clean, just as one wipes a dish and turns it upside down.
14I will abandon the rest of my people, my inheritance, and hand them over to their enemies. They will become prey and plunder for all their enemies,
15because they have done evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now.’”
16Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, in addition to the sin by which he caused Judah to sin by doing what Yahweh considered evil.
17The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, including all he did and the sins he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
18Manasseh passed away and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.
19Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah.
20He did what Yahweh considered evil, just as his father Manasseh had done.
21He followed all the paths his father had walked, served the idols his father had served, and worshiped them.
22and he turned away from Yahweh, the God of his ancestors, and did not live according to Yahweh's ways.
23Amon's officials plotted against him and killed the king in his own house.
24But the people of the land killed all those who had plotted against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
25The rest of Amon's actions, aren't they written in the book of the historical records of the kings of Judah?
26He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah reigned in his place.