Judah’s King Manasseh

33 Manasseh was 12 years old^(A) when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^{(B) 3} He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down^(C) and reestablished the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them. ⁴ He built altars^(D) in the Lord’s temple, where Yahweh had said, “Jerusalem is where My name will remain forever.”^{(E) 5} He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards^(F) of the Lord’s temple. ⁶ He passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Hinnom.^(G) He practiced witchcraft, divination, and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists.^(H) He did a great deal of evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him.

⁷ Manasseh^(I) set up a carved image of the idol he had made, in God’s temple,^(J) about which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “I will establish My name forever^[a](K) in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.^{(L) 8} I will never again remove the feet of the Israelites from the land where I stationed your^[b](M) ancestors,^(N) if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them through Moses—all the law, statutes, and judgments.” ⁹ So Manasseh caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.