Judah’s King Manasseh

33 Manasseh was 12 years old^(A) when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^{(B) 3} He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down^(C) and reestablished the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them. ⁴ He built altars^(D) in the Lord’s temple, where Yahweh had said, “Jerusalem is where My name will remain forever.”^{(E) 5} He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards^(F) of the Lord’s temple. ⁶ He passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Hinnom.^(G) He practiced witchcraft, divination, and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists.^(H) He did a great deal of evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him.

⁷ Manasseh^(I) set up a carved image of the idol he had made, in God’s temple,^(J) about which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “I will establish My name forever^[a](K) in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.^{(L) 8} I will never again remove the feet of the Israelites from the land where I stationed your^[b](M) ancestors,^(N) if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them through Moses—all the law, statutes, and judgments.” ⁹ So Manasseh caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

Manasseh’s Repentance

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn’t listen.^{(O) 11} So He brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.^{(P) 12} When he was in distress, he sought the favor of Yahweh his God and earnestly humbled himself^(Q) before the God of his ancestors. ¹³ He prayed to Him, so He heard his petition and granted his request,^(R) and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. So Manasseh came to know that Yahweh is God.^(S)

¹⁴ After this, he built the outer wall of the city of David from west of Gihon^(T) in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate;^(U) he brought it around the Ophel,^(V) and he heightened it considerably. He also placed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵ He removed the foreign gods and the idol^(W) from the Lord’s temple, along with all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. ¹⁶ He built^[c] the altar of the Lord and offered fellowship and thank offerings on it. Then he told Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel. ¹⁷ However, the people still sacrificed at the high places,^(X) but only to Yahweh their God.

Manasseh’s Death

¹⁸ The rest of the events^(Y) of Manasseh’s reign, along with his prayer^(Z) to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, are written in the Records of Israel’s Kings. ¹⁹ His prayer and how God granted his request, and all his sin and unfaithfulness and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and carved images before he humbled himself, they are written in the Records of Hozai. ²⁰ Manasseh rested with his fathers, and he was buried in his own house. His son Amon became king in his place.