¹¹ So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner,^(A) put a hook^(B) in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles^(C) and took him to Babylon. ¹² In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled^(D) himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. ¹³ And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

¹⁴ Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon^(E) spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate^(F) and encircling the hill of Ophel;^(G) he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.

¹⁵ He got rid of the foreign gods and removed^(H) the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city. ¹⁶ Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings^(I) on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁷ The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸ The other events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel.^{[a] 19} His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled^(J) himself—all these are written in the records of the seers.^[b](K)