2 Chronicles
Chapter 33
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2 But did what was bad in God’s eyes, just like the horrible things the non-Israelites did, whom God had driven out before the Israelites.
3 He rebuilt the worship places his father Hezekiah had destroyed, set up altars for Baal, made sacred gardens, and bowed to the stars of the sky, serving them.
4 He also made places to worship in God’s house, where God had said, “My name will always be in Jerusalem.”
5 He made altars for all the heavenly bodies in the two yards of God’s house.
6 He made his children go through fire in Hinnom’s valley, practiced fortune-telling, used magic, did witchcraft, and talked to spirits and sorcerers. He did a lot of bad things that made God very angry.
7 He placed a carved idol, which he made, in God’s house, where God told David and Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all Israel’s tribes, my name will remain forever.”
8 I will not make Israel leave the land I gave to your ancestors again, if they follow all my commands, laws, and rules given through Moses.
9 Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to make bigger mistakes than the nations God had removed before the Israelites.
10 God spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.
11 So God let the commanders of the Assyrian king’s army come, who captured Manasseh in the bushes, tied him up with chains, and took him to Babylon.
12 When he suffered, he asked God for help and humbled himself a lot before the God of his ancestors.
13 He prayed to God, and God listened to him, heard his plea, and brought him back to his own kingdom in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh understood that God was the true God.
14 After this, he built a wall outside the city of David, west of Gihon in the valley, up to the Fish Gate entrance, around Ophel, making it very tall, and placed military leaders in all of Judah’s fortified cities.
15 He removed the foreign gods and the idol from God’s house, and all the altars that he had built on the hill of God’s house, and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city.
16 He fixed God’s altar, offered peace and thank you sacrifices on it, and told Judah to worship the God of Israel.
17 People still made sacrifices in the high places, but only to God.
18 The other things Manasseh did, his prayer to God, and what the prophets told him in God’s name are written in the book of the kings of Israel.
19 His prayer, how God listened to him, all his sins, his wrongdoing, and the spots where he made worship sites, and put up wooded areas and carved idols, before he became humble: look, they are recorded in the prophets’ writings.
20 Manasseh died and was buried in his own home; then his son Amon became king after him.
21 Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he ruled for two years in Jerusalem.
22 But he did evil things that God didn’t like, just like his father Manasseh: Amon worshiped all the idols his father Manasseh had made, and followed them.
23 He did not humble himself before God, unlike his father Manasseh; instead, Amon kept sinning even more.
24 His servants plotted against him and killed him in his house.
25 The people of the land killed all who plotted against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah the new king.