2 Chronicles 33

Thomson^{(i) 1} Manasses was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty five years in Jerusalem, ² and did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all the abominable acts of the nations which the Lord had rooted out from before the children of Israel. ³ He restored and rebuilt the high places which his father Ezekias had demolished, and erected pillars to the Baalims, and made arbours, and worshipped the whole host of heaven and served them. ⁴ Nay, he built altars in the house of the Lord, respecting which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem my name shall be forever; ⁵ he built altars for the whole host of heaven, in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶ And he made his children pass through fire in the land of Benennom. And he consulted omens and auguries, and used enchantments and encouraged belly speakers and sorcerers, and multiplied the ways of doing evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to wrath. ⁷ He actually set up the graven and molten image which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had 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, ⁸ and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have given to their fathers, provided they be watchful to perform all that I have commanded them, according to all the law and the statutes and the judgments, by the hand of Moses. ⁹ Now when Manasses had caused Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go astray, and to do evil beyond all the nations which the Lord had destroyed from before the children of Israel; ¹⁰ and the Lord had spoken against Manasses and against his people, but they hearkened not, ¹¹ the Lord brought against them the chiefs of the army of the king of Asur, and they took Manasses, and having bound him with chains and fetters they carried him to Babylon. ¹² And when he was afflicted he sought the favour of the Lord his God, and humbled himself exceedingly before the God of his fathers, ¹³ and prayed to him, and he hearkened to him and heard his cry, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. So Manasses knew that the Lord himself is God. ¹⁴ Now after these things he built a wall without the city of David, from the south west, fronting the south in the valley and along the street leading from the fish gate round to Opel, and raised it very high, and appointed military officers in all the walled cities of Juda. ¹⁵ And he removed the strange gods and the graven image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars which he had built on the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and without the city. ¹⁶ And having repaired the altar of the Lord he offered thereon a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, and ordered Juda to serve the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁷ But still the people sacrificed on the high places, but it was to the Lord their God. ¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manasses, and his prayer to God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the God of Israel; ¹⁹ and how God hearkened to him at the words of his prayer; and all his sins and his apostasies; and the places on which he built mounts and erected bowers, and graven images before his conversion; behold they are written among the words of the seers. ²⁰ And when Manasses slept with his fathers they buried him in the garden of his house, and Amon his son reigned in his stead. ²¹ Amon was twenty two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem, ²² and did evil in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasses had done. For to all the idols which his father Manasses had made Amon burned incense, and served them, ²³ and did not humble himself before the Lord as Manasses his father had humbled himself. Because his son Amon multiplied transgression, ²⁴ therefore his servants rose upon him, and smote him in his house. ²⁵ And when the people of the country had slain those who conspired against king Amon, the people of the country made Josias his son king in his stead.