21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began his fifty-five-year [wicked] reign in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.

² He [Hezekiah’s son] did evil in the sight of the Lord, after the [idolatrous] practices of the [heathen] nations whom the Lord cast out before the Israelites.

³ For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the [starry] hosts of the heavens and served them!

⁴ And he built [heathen] altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put My ^[a]Name [and the pledge of My presence].

⁵ And he [good Hezekiah’s son] built altars for all the hosts of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the Lord!

⁶ And he made his son pass through the fire and burned him as an offering [to Molech]; he practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and wizards! He did much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

⁹ So Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken.

¹¹ So the Lord brought against them the commanders of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks and in fetters and brought him to Babylon.

¹² When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

¹³ He prayed to Him, and God, entreated by him, heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.