2 Chronicles 33
New American Standard Bible
Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah in Judah
33 (A)Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 (B)He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. 3 For (C)he rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had torn down; (D)he also set up altars for the Baals and made [a]Asherim, and he worshiped all the heavenly [b]lights and served them. 4 (E)He built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said, “My name shall be (F)in Jerusalem forever.” 5 He built altars for all the heavenly [c]lights in (G)the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. 6 (H)He also made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, and (I)dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger. 7 Then he put (J)the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “(K)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 remove the foot of Israel again from the land (L)which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will take care to do everything that I have commanded them according to all the Law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.” 9 So Manasseh encouraged Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.
Manasseh’s Idolatry Rebuked
10 So the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but (M)they paid no attention. 11 (N)Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, (O)bound him with bronze chains, and led him to Babylon. 12 When (P)he was in distress, he appeased the Lord his God and (Q)humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 When he prayed to Him, (R)He was moved by him and heard his pleading, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh (S)knew that the Lord alone is God.
14 Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of (T)Gihon, in the valley, up to the entrance of the (U)Fish Gate; and he encircled the (V)Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15 He also (W)removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. 16 He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed (X)peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17 However, (Y)the people still sacrificed on the high places, although only to the Lord their God.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and (Z)his prayer to his God, and the words of (AA)the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of (AB)Israel. 19 His prayer also and (AC)how God was moved by him, and all his sin, his unfaithfulness, and (AD)the sites on which he built high places and erected the [d]Asherim and the carved images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the records of [e]Hozai. 20 So Manasseh [f]lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And his son Amon became king in his place.
Amon Becomes King in Judah
21 (AE)Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. 22 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh (AF)had done, and Amon sacrificed to all (AG)the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and he served them. 23 Furthermore, he did not humble himself before the Lord (AH)as his father Manasseh had [g]done, but Amon multiplied his guilt. 24 Finally, (AI)his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house. 25 But the people of the land [h]killed all the conspirators against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
Footnotes
- 2 Chronicles 33:3 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
- 2 Chronicles 33:3 Lit host
- 2 Chronicles 33:5 Lit host
- 2 Chronicles 33:19 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
- 2 Chronicles 33:19 LXX seers
- 2 Chronicles 33:20 I.e., died
- 2 Chronicles 33:23 Lit humbled himself
- 2 Chronicles 33:25 Lit struck
2 Chronicles 33
Living Bible
33 Manasseh was only twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 But it was an evil reign, for he encouraged his people to worship the idols of the heathen nations destroyed by the Lord when the people of Israel entered the land. 3 He rebuilt the heathen altars his father Hezekiah had destroyed—the altars of Baal, and of the shameful images, and of the sun, moon, and stars. 4-5 He even constructed heathen altars in both courts of the Temple of the Lord for worshiping the sun, moon, and stars—in the very place where the Lord had said that he would be honored forever. 6 And Manasseh sacrificed his own children as burnt offerings in the valley of Hinnom. He consulted spirit-mediums, too, and fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and encouraged every sort of evil, making the Lord very angry.
7 Think of it! He placed an idol in the very Temple of God, where God had told David and his son Solomon, “I will be honored here in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen to be honored forever above all the other cities of Israel. 8 And if you will only obey my commands—all the laws and instructions given to you by Moses—I won’t ever again exile Israel from this land which I gave your ancestors.”
9 But Manasseh encouraged the people of Judah and Jerusalem to do even more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed when Israel entered the land. 10 Warnings from the Lord were ignored by both Manasseh and his people. 11 So God sent the Assyrian armies, and they seized him with hooks and bound him with bronze chains and carted him away to Babylon. 12 Then at last he came to his senses and cried out humbly to God for help. 13 And the Lord listened and answered his plea by returning him to Jerusalem and to his kingdom! At that point Manasseh finally realized that the Lord was really God!
14 It was after this that he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David and the wall from west of the spring of Gihon in the Kidron Valley, and then to the Fish Gate, and around Citadel Hill, where it was built very high. And he stationed his army generals in all of the fortified cities of Judah. 15 He also removed the foreign gods from the hills and took his idol from the Temple, and tore down the altars he had built on the mountain, where the Temple stood, and the altars that were in Jerusalem, and dumped them outside the city. 16 Then he rebuilt the altar of the Lord and offered sacrifices upon it—peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings—and demanded that the people of Judah worship the Lord God of Israel. 17 However, the people still sacrificed upon the altars on the hills, but only to the Lord their God.
18 The rest of Manasseh’s deeds, and his prayer to God, and God’s reply through the prophets—this is all written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 19 His prayer, and the way God answered, and a frank account of his sins and errors, including a list of the locations where he built idols on the hills and set up shameful and graven images (this of course was before the great change in his attitude), are recorded in The Annals of the Prophets.
20-21 When Manasseh died, he was buried beneath his own palace, and his son Amon became the new king. Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign in Jerusalem, but he lasted for only two years. 22 It was an evil reign like the early years of his father Manasseh; for Amon sacrificed to all the idols just as his father had. 23 But he didn’t change as his father did; instead he sinned more and more. 24 At last his own officers assassinated him in his palace. 25 But some public-spirited citizens killed all of those who assassinated him and declared his son Josiah to be the new king.
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