Dual Panel1MANASSEH was twelve years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.
2He did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD, in following the abominable practices of the nations which the LORD had dispossessed in favour of the Israelites.
3He rebuilt the shrines which his father Hezekiah had demolished, he erected altars to the baalim, made sacred poles, and prostrated himself before all the host of heaven and served them.
4He built altars in the house of the LORD, that house of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem my name will be for ever.”
5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD;
6he made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom, he practised soothsaying, divination, and sorcery, and dealt with ghosts and spirits. He did much wrong in the eyes of the LORD and provoked his anger.
7The image that he had had carved in relief he set up in the house of God, of which God had said to David and Solomon his son, “In this house and Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall establish my name for all time.
8I shall not again displace Israel from the land which I assigned to their forefathers, if only they are careful to observe all that I commanded them through Moses, all the law, the statutes, and the rules.”
9But Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray into wickedness far worse than that of the nations which the LORD had exterminated in favour of the Israelites.
10The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but when they paid no heed,
11he brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria; they captured Manasseh with spiked weapons, put him in bronze fetters, and brought him to Babylon.
12In his distress he prayed to the LORD his God and sought to placate him, and made his humble submission before the God of his forefathers.
13When he prayed, God accepted his petition and heard his supplication; he brought him back to Jerusalem and restored him to the throne. Thus Manasseh learnt that the LORD was God.
14After this he built an outer wall for the city of David, west of Gihon in the valley, and extended it to the entrance by the Fish Gate, enclosing Ophel; and he raised it to a great height. He also stationed military commanders in all the fortified towns of Judah.
15He removed the foreign gods and the carved image from the house of the LORD as well as all the altars which he had erected on the temple mount and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city.
16He repaired the altar of the LORD and sacrificed at it shared-offerings and thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD the God of Israel.
17But the people still continued to sacrifice at the shrines, though only to the LORD their God.
18The rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the discourses of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD the God of Israel, are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
19His prayer and the answer to it he received, all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the places where he built shrines and set up sacred poles and carved idols before he submitted, are recorded in the chronicles of the seers.
20Manasseh rested with his forefathers and was buried in the garden-tomb of his family. His son Amon succeeded him.
21Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for two years.
22He did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD as his father Manasseh had done. He sacrificed to all the images that his father Manasseh had made, and worshipped them.
23He was not submissive before the LORD like his father Manasseh; his guilt was much greater.
24His courtiers conspired against him and assassinated him in the palace;
25but the people of the land killed all the conspirators and made his son Josiah king in his place.