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was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down; and he erected altars for the Baals, made Asherah poles, and bowed down and worshipped all the starry hosts of the heavens and served them. 4 He built altars in the House of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will be in Jerusalem forever.” 5 In both courtyards of the House of the Lord he built altars for all the starry hosts. 6 He made his sons to pass through fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
7 He set up a carved image of the idol he had made in God’s temple, about which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever. 8 I will never again remove the feet of the Israelites from upon the land I assigned for your forefathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them concerning all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.” 9 But Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants astray, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.
10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. 11 So the Lord brought against them the military commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and carried him off to Babylon. 12 When he was in distress, he sought the favour of the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to Him, and the Lord received his entreaty and listened his plea, and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.
14 Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, from the west side of Gihon in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and enclosing the Ophel, and he built it much higher. He also stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.
15 He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the House of the Lord; as well as all that altars that he had built on the mountain of the House of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and threw them outside the city. 16 Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. 17 However the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
18 Now the rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. 19 His prayer and how God granted his request, and all his sins and his unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are written in the Records of Howzay. 20 So Manasseh slept with his fathers and he was buried in his own palace. His son Amon succeeded him as king.
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. 22 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved images that his father Manasseh had made, and he served them. 23 But he did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; instead, Amon only increased his guilt.
24 So his servants conspired against him and they killed him in his own house. 25 Then the people of the land executed all who had conspired against King Amon, they made his son Josiah king in his place.