2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh’s Wickedness, His Comeback, & Amon’s Short Reign

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.

2 He did what was whack in the eyes of the Lord, following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had kicked out from in front of the Israelites.

3 He rebuilt the high places that his pops Hezekiah had torn down. He set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles, and he bowed down to all the stars in the sky and served them.

4 He built altars for idols in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem, My Name will be forever.”

5 He built altars for all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.

6 He even made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He practiced divination, used sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did a ton of evil in the eyes of the Lord, ticking Him off.

7 He took the carved image of the idol he had made and put it in God’s temple, about which God had told David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I am going to put My Name forever.”

8 “And I am not going to make Israel wander from the land I gave their ancestors again, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them, all the Law, the rules, and the regulations given through Moses.”

9 But Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from in front of the Israelites.

Manasseh’s Capture & Repentance

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

11 So the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them. They captured Manasseh with hooks, put him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

12 When he was in distress, he begged the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.

13 He prayed to Him, and God heard his plea and heard his compassion, and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord alone is God.

Manasseh’s Later Actions

14 After this, he built an outer wall for the City of David, west of Gihon, in the valley, all the way to the Fish Gate. He built it around Ophel and made it very high. He also put military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

15 He got rid of the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s temple, and all the altars he had built on the mountain of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem, and he tossed them outside the city.

16 He repaired the altar of the Lord and offered peace offerings and thank offerings on it. He commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

17 However, the people still offered sacrifices on the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

18 As for the rest of Manasseh’s story, 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, look, they are in the records of the Kings of Israel.

19 His prayer and how God heard him, 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, look, they are written in the records of the Hozai.

20 Manasseh passed away and joined his ancestors, and they buried him in his own palace. And his son Amon took over as king.

Amon’s Wicked Reign

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.

22 He did what was whack in the eyes of the Lord, just like his pops Manasseh had done. Amon offered sacrifices to all the carved images that his pops Manasseh had made, and served them.

23 He did not humble himself before the Lord, like his pops Manasseh humbled himself. Instead, Amon increased his guilt.

24 His officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his own palace.

25 But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.