Manasseh Reigns in Judah
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1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
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And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to 2the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
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For he rebuilt the high places 3that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made 4Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
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And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, 5"In Jerusalem shall my name be forever."
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7And he burned his sons as an offering 8in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and 9used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with 10mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
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And 11the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, 12I will put my name forever,
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and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land 13that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses."
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Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
Manasseh's Repentance
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The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
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14Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and 15bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
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And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God 16and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
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He prayed to him, and 17God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. 18Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
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Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of 19Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into 20the Fish Gate, and carried it around 21Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah.
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And 22he took away the foreign gods 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 threw them outside of the city.
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He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.
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Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and 24his prayer to his God, and the words of 25the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the 26Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
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And his prayer, and how 27God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites 28on which he built high places and set up the 29Asherim and the images, before 30he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.a
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So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.
Amon's Reign and Death
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And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images 32that Manasseh his father had made, and served them.
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And he did not humble himself before the LORD, 33as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more.
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And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house.
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But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)