The Second Book of the Chronicles

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- Chapter 33 -

(2 Kings 21:1–9)

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became the king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for fifty-five years.

He did many things that Yahweh said were evil. He imitated the disgusting things that were formerly done by the people groups that Yahweh had expelled from Israel as his people advanced into the land.

He commanded his workers to rebuild the high places upon the hills for worshiping idols, the same ones that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He told them to set up poles to honor the god Baal, and to make poles to honor the goddess Asherah. He also bowed down to worship all the stars.

He directed his workers to build altars for foreign gods in the temple itself, about which Yahweh had said, “It is here in Jerusalem that I want people to worship me, forever.”

He directed that altars for worshiping all the stars be built in both of the courtyards outside the temple.

He even sacrificed some of his own sons by burning them in a fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He performed rituals to practice sorcery. He asked fortune tellers for advice. He performed witchcraft. He talked to people who consulted the spirits of people who had died to find out what would happen in the future. He did many things that Yahweh says are very evil, things that caused Yahweh to become very angry.

Manasseh took the carved idol that his workers had made and put it in the temple. That is the temple concerning which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “My temple will be here in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen where I want people to worship me, forever.

If they will obey all the laws and decrees and regulations that I told Moses to give to them, I will not again force the Israelite people to leave this land that I gave to their ancestors.”

But Manasseh led the people of Jerusalem and other places in Judah to do things that are wrong, with the result that they did more evil than had been done by the people in the people groups that Yahweh had driven out as the Israelite people advanced through the land.

Manasseh’s Repentance and Restoration

(2 Kings 21:10–18)

Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and the people of Judah, but they paid no attention.

So Yahweh caused the army commanders of Assyria and their soldiers to come to Jerusalem, and they captured Manasseh. They put a hook in his nose, put bronze chains on his feet, and took him to Babylon.

There, while he was suffering, he humbled himself greatly in the presence of Yahweh, the God whom his ancestors worshiped, and pleaded with Yahweh to help him.

When he prayed, Yahweh heard him and pitied him. So he allowed him to return to Jerusalem and to rule his kingdom again. Then Manasseh realized that Yahweh is God, who can do anything.

Later, Manasseh’s workers rebuilt the eastern section of the outer wall around Jerusalem, and they made it higher. That section extended from the spring of Gihon north to the fish Gate, and around the part of the city that they called Ophel Hill. Manasseh also appointed army officers to guard each of the cities in Judah that had walls around them.

Manasseh’s workers removed from the temple the idols and the figures of gods of other nations. He also told them to remove the altars that they had previously built on Mount Zion and in other places in Jerusalem. He had all those things thrown out of the city.

Then he told them to repair the altar of Yahweh, and he offered sacrifices to restore fellowship with Yahweh and to thank him. And he told the people of Judah that they must worship only Yahweh.

The people continued to offer sacrifices at the high places on the hills, but only to Yahweh their God.

The other things that happened while Manasseh was ruling, including his prayer to God and the messages from Yahweh that the prophets spoke to him, are written in the book of the kings of Israel.

What Manasseh prayed and how God pitied him because of what he pleaded to God for, also his sins and ways in which he disobeyed God, also the list of places where he built the houses on the hills for idol worship and set up poles to honor the goddess Asherah and other idols before he humbled himself, these are all written in what the prophets wrote.

Manasseh died and was buried in his palace. Then his son Amon became the king of Judah.

Amon Reigns in Judah

(2 Kings 21:19–26)

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.

He did many things that Yahweh said were evil, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshiped all the idols that Manasseh’s workers had made.

But he did not humble himself and turn to Yahweh like his father did. So he became more sinful than his father had been.

Then Amon’s officials made plans to kill him. They assassinated him in his palace.

But then the people of Judah killed all those who had assassinated Amon, and they appointed his son Josiah to be their king.

(2 Kings 21:1–9)

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, after the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.

He built altars in the LORD’s house, of which the LORD said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”

He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the LORD’s house.

He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He did much evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger.

He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, 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, I will put my name forever.

I will not any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given by Moses.”

Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.

Manasseh’s Repentance and Restoration

(2 Kings 21:10–18)

The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they didn’t listen.

Therefore the LORD brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

When he was in distress, he begged the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

Now after this, he built an outer wall to David’s city on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate. He encircled Ophel with it, and raised it up to a very great height; and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.

He took away the foreign gods and the idol out of the LORD’s house, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the LORD’s house and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

He built up the LORD’s altar, and offered sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to the LORD their God.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.

His prayer also, and how God listened to his request, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.(a)

So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house; and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon Reigns in Judah

(2 Kings 21:19–26)

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

He didn’t humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.

His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.

But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

Footnotes

(a)33:19 or, the seers