Manasseh, King of Judah^(A)

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. ² But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord previously cast out before the sons of Israel. ³ And he turned again to build the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he set up altars to the Baals, and made Asherah poles, and worshipped the starry assembly of heaven and served them. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord where the Lord said, “In Jerusalem My name will be perpetual.” ⁵ And he built altars for the starry assembly of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. ⁶ He even made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom; and he had conjurers, and practitioners of divination and sorcery, and necromancers, and mediums. So he did a great amount of evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that God was provoked.

⁷ And he set the carved image of a statue that he made and put in the house of God where God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem where I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel, there I have set My name perpetually. ⁸ And I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the ground that I have designated to your fathers, if only they will keep on doing everything that I have commanded them, the whole law, statutes, and judgments from the hand of Moses.” ⁹ So Manasseh made Judah and those living in Jerusalem to wander and to perform more evil than the nations that the Lord destroyed from before Israel.

Manasseh’s Repentance

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not pay attention. ¹¹ So the Lord brought on them the officials of the army of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, and they bound him in bronze chains and led him to Babylon. ¹² And when he was distressed, he entreated the face of the Lord his God, and he greatly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. ¹³ And he prayed to God, and He was moved and responded to his plea and returned him to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

¹⁴ After this he built an outer wall for the City of David, west of Gihon, in the valley and toward the entrance of the Fish Gate, where it went around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. Then he positioned military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.

¹⁵ And he removed the foreign gods and statues from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he built on the hill of the house of the Lord and Jerusalem, and he cast them outside the city. ¹⁶ He also restored the altar of the Lord, and he sacrificed fellowship and thanksgiving offerings, and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁷ However, the people continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

The Death of Manasseh

¹⁸ And the remainder of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer to God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel are written in the annals of the kings of Israel. ¹⁹ And his prayer and how God received his entreaty, and all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and where he set up the Asherah poles and images before he humbled himself, indeed they are written in the sayings of Hozai. ²⁰ So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his palace, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon, King of Judah^(B)

²¹ And Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he was king for two years in Jerusalem. ²² And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord as his father Manasseh had done. And Amon sacrificed to and served all the idols that Manasseh his father had made. ²³ He did not humble himself before the Lord as his father humbled himself. But he increased his guilt all the more.

²⁴ And his servants plotted against him, and they killed him in his palace. ²⁵ Then the people of the land struck down all those who conspired against King Amon. The people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.