Manasseh Reigns in Judah
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
And he turned and built the high places that Hezekiah his father had torn down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, and made Asherah poles, and bowed down to all the host of the heavens, and served them.
And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.”
And he built altars for all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
And he made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; and he practiced soothsaying, and read omens, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with a spirit of the dead and with familiar spirits. He did much of the evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him.
And he set the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son: “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will set my name forever.
And I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the soil that I appointed for your fathers — only if they take care to do all that I have commanded them, according to all the instruction, and the statutes, and the judgments, by the hand of Moses.”
And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the sons of Israel.
Manasseh’s Repentance and Restoration
And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people — but they paid no attention.
And the LORD brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria; and they captured Manasseh with hooks, and bound him with double bronze chains, and led him to Babylon.
And in his distress, he sought the favor of the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
And he prayed to him — and he was entreated by him, and heard his plea, and returned him to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD — he is God.
And after this he built an outer wall for the city of David, west of the Gihon, in the ravine, up to the entrance of the Fish Gate; and he encircled the Ophel, and raised it very high. And he put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.
And he removed the foreign gods, and the idol, from the house of the LORD, and all the altars he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem; and he threw them outside the city.
And he built up the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed on it sacrifices of peace offerings and thanksgiving; and he said to Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.
But the people were still sacrificing at the high places — only, to the LORD their God.
And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel — look, they are in the records of the kings of Israel.
And his prayer, and how he was entreated; and all his sin and his faithlessness; and the places where he built high places and set up the Asherah poles and the carved images, before he humbled himself — look, they are written in the records of Hozai.
And Manasseh lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house; and Amon his son became king in his place.
Amon Reigns in Judah
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done; and to all the carved images that Manasseh his father had made, Amon sacrificed, and he served them.
And he did not humble himself before the LORD as Manasseh his father had humbled himself — for he, Amon, multiplied guilt.
And his servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his house.
And the people of the land struck down all who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.