2 ChroniclesChapter 33
Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.
1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem fifty-five years. 2He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. He did the disgusting things of the nations that the LORD had driven out in front of the Israelites. 3He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had torn down. He set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and served them. 4Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD. This was the place the LORD had spoken of when he said, "My Name will stay in Jerusalem forever." 5In both courtyards of the house of the LORD, he built altars to all the stars in the sky. 6He burned his sons in the fire as sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He practiced magic, fortune-telling, and witchcraft. He asked for help from people who talk to the dead and to spirits. He did great evil in the eyes of the LORD and made him angry. 7Manasseh even took the carved idol he had made and set it up in the house of God. God had spoken about this house to David and his son Solomon. He had said, "I have chosen Jerusalem out of all the tribes of Israel. I will put my Name in this temple and in Jerusalem forever. 8I will never again make the Israelites leave the land I gave to your fathers, if only they are careful to do all I have commanded them through Moses. That means all the laws, rules, and decrees." 9So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem the wrong way. They did even more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed in front of the Israelites. 10The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. 11So the LORD brought the army commanders of the king of Assyria against them. They captured Manasseh and put a hook in his nose. They tied him up with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. 12In his trouble, Manasseh begged the LORD his God for help. He deeply humbled himself before the God of his fathers. 13He prayed to God, and the LORD was moved by his prayer. He heard his cry for help. So he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God. 14After this, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David. It went from west of Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate. He built it around the hill of Ophel and made it much higher. He also put army commanders in all the walled cities of Judah. 15He took the foreign gods and the idol out of the house of the LORD. He also took away all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem. He threw them out of the city. 16Then he fixed the altar of the LORD. He offered peace offerings and thank offerings on it. He told Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. 17But the people still offered sacrifices at the high places. They offered them only to the LORD their God. 18The rest of what Manasseh did is written down. So is 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. They are in the Records of the Kings of Israel. 19His prayer is written down, and how God was moved by it. So are all his sins and how unfaithful he was. So are the places where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself. All this is written in the Records of the Seers. 20Manasseh died and joined his fathers. He was buried at his palace. And his son Amon became king after him. 21Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem two years. 22He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon served all the idols his father Manasseh had made. He offered sacrifices to them. 23But he did not humble himself before the LORD as his father Manasseh had done. Instead, Amon kept adding to his guilt. 24Then Amon's servants made a plot against him. They killed him in his palace. 25But the people of the land killed all those who had plotted against King Amon. They made his son Josiah king in his place.