1Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 55 years.2Manasseh did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. He followed the practices of the nations. The LORD hated those practices. The LORD had driven out those nations to make room for the Israelites.3Manasseh rebuilt the high places. His father Hezekiah had destroyed them. Manasseh also set up altars to the gods that were named Baal. He made poles used to worship the female god named Asherah. He even bowed down to all the stars and worshipped them.4He built altars in the LORD’s temple. The LORD had said about his temple, ‘My Name will remain in Jerusalem for ever.’5In the two courtyards of the LORD’s temple Manasseh built altars to honour all the stars in the sky.6He sacrificed his children in the fire to other gods. He did it in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He practised all kinds of evil magic. He took part in worshipping evil powers. He got messages from people who had died. He talked to the spirits of people who have died. He did many things that were evil in the eyes of the LORD. Manasseh made the LORD very angry.7Manasseh had carved a statue of a god. He put it in God’s temple. God had spoken to David and his son Solomon about the temple. He had said, ‘My Name will be in this temple and in Jerusalem for ever. Out of all the cities in the tribes of Israel I have chosen Jerusalem.8I gave this land to your people who lived long ago. I will not make the Israelites leave it again. But they must be careful to do everything I commanded them. They must follow all the laws, directions, and rules I gave them through Moses.’9But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray. They did more evil things than the nations the LORD had destroyed to make room for the Israelites.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 help him. He made himself very humble 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. The LORD brought Manasseh 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 the cities in Judah that had high walls around them.15Manasseh got rid of the false gods. He removed the statue of one of those gods from the LORD’s temple. He also removed all 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.17The people continued to offer sacrifices at the high places. But they offered them only to the LORD their God.18The other events of Manasseh’s rule are written down in the official records of the kings of Judah. These records include his prayer to his God. They also include the words the prophets spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.19Everything about Manasseh is written in the records of the prophets. That includes his prayer and the fact that God felt sorry for him. It includes everything he did before he made himself humble in the LORD’s sight. It includes all his sins and the fact that he wasn’t faithful to the LORD. It includes the locations where he built high places. It includes the places where he set up poles used to worship the female god named Asherah. And it includes the places where he set up statues of other gods.20Manasseh joined the members of his family who had already died. He was buried in his palace. Manasseh’s son Amon became the next king after him.
Amon king of Judah
21Amon was 22 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for two years.22Amon did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshipped and offered sacrifices to all the statues of gods that Manasseh had made.23He didn’t make himself humble in the LORD’s sight as his father Manasseh had done. So Amon became even more guilty.24Amon’s officials made plans against him. They murdered him in his palace.25Then the people of the land killed all those who had made plans against King Amon. They made his son Josiah king in his place.
2 Chronicles 33
English Standard Version
Manasseh Reigns in Judah
1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. (2Ki 21:1)2And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. (2Ch 28:3)3For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. (De 16:21; De 17:3; 2Ki 18:4; 2Ch 30:14; 2Ch 31:1)4And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” (2Ch 6:6)5And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. (2Ch 4:9)6And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. (De 18:10; Jos 15:8; 1Sa 28:3; 2Ch 28:3)7And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God 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 put my name forever, (2Ch 33:4; 2Ch 33:15)8and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” (2Sa 7:10)9Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.
Manasseh’s Repentance
10The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.11Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. (De 28:36; Jud 16:21; 2Ch 36:6)12And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. (2Ch 32:26)13He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. (1Ch 5:20; Ezr 8:23; Da 4:25)14Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. (1Ki 1:33; 2Ch 27:3; Ne 3:3; Ne 12:39; Zep 1:10)15And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. (2Ch 33:3; 2Ch 33:5; 2Ch 33:7)16He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.17Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God. (2Ch 32:12)18Now 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, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. (1Sa 9:9; 2Ki 21:17; 2Ch 33:13; 2Ch 33:19)19And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.[1] (2Ch 33:3; 2Ch 33:12; 2Ch 33:13)20So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.
Amon’s Reign and Death
21Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. (2Ki 21:19)22And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. (2Ch 33:7; 2Ch 34:3)23And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. (2Ch 33:12)24And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house.25But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.