King James Version

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. 2 And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD drove out before the children of Israel. 3 And he sat and built the high places that Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed, and he raised altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, which the Lord said, "In Jerusalem shall be My name forever." 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. 6 And he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and he practiced soothsaying and divination and enchantment, and he performed necromancy and consulted spirits; he did many things to provoke the Lord to anger. 7 And he set up the idol of the image that he made in the house of God, which God said to David and to his son Solomon in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel; I will put my name forever. 8 And I will not add to remove the foot of Israel from the ground that I established for your ancestors, only if they will take care to do all that I commanded them concerning all the law and the statutes and the judgments by the hand of Moses. 9 And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do evil, from the nations which the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. 10 And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not listen. 11 And the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, and they captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with bronze chains and carried him to Babylon. 12 And he was greatly distressed and sought the face of the Lord his God, and he humbled himself very much before the God of his fathers. 13 And he prayed to me, and I was entreated for him, and I heard his supplication, and I returned him to Jerusalem to his kingdom. And Manasseh knew that the Lord, He is the God. 14 And afterward, he built a outer wall for the city of David westward to Gihon by the valley and to enter by the fish gate and he surrounded the hill and he heightened it very much, and he put captains of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15 And he removed the gods of the foreigner and the idol from the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he cast them outside the city. 16 And he built an altar to the Lord, and he offered on it peace offerings and thanksgiving, and he said to Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17 But still the people are sacrificing on the high places only to Yahweh their God. 18 And the rest of the words of Manasseh and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, indeed, they are written in the accounts of the kings of Israel. 19 And his prayer and his supplication, and all his sins and his transgressions, and the places where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before his anger—behold, they are written on the words of the seers. 20 And Manasseh lay down with his ancestors, and they buried him in his house, and his son Amon reigned in his place. 21 Twenty-two years was Ammon when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, like what Manasseh, his father, had done, and for all the idols that Manasseh, his father, had made, he sacrificed to the idol and served them. 23 And we did not submit before the LORD like my father Manasseh did, for he was a faithful man, greatly multiplying guilt. 24 And they bound me, and my servants, and they killed him in his house. 25 And the people of the land struck all the conspirators against King Ammon, and the people of the land made Josiah, his son, king in his place.