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¹ MANASSEH was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem;² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LOAD, according to the works of the nations which the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.³ For he built again the altars which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he built shrines for the idols and made images of leopards, and worshipped them.⁴ Moreover he worshipped all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.⁶ And he also caused his son to pass through the fire in the great valley; and he practiced augury and soothsaying and sorcery, and inquired of the Chaldeans and of familiar spirits; and he did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.⁷ And he set the image of the idol which had four faces, which he had made, in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen for myself out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever;⁸ Neither will I any more remove the children of Israel from this land which I have given to their fathers; if only they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and my statutes and my ordinances which my servant Moses commanded them.⁹ So Manasseh caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go astray and to do evil works like 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 would not hearken.

¹¹ Therefore the LORD brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh alive and bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon.¹² But when he was in distress, he prayed before the LORD his God and reverenced greatly the LORD God of his fathers,¹³ And he prayed before the LORD, and he heard his voice and heard his prayer, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.¹⁴ Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David on the west side of the brook of Gihon to the entrance of the fish gate, and encircled the whole of Jerusalem with an outer wall and raised it up a very great height, and he appointed commanders of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.¹⁵ And he took away the strange gods and the idols out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.¹⁶ And he built an altar to the LORD, and sacrificed upon it burnt offerings and peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to keep the feast to the LORD God of Israel;¹⁷ And not to sacrifice again to strange gods, nor to offer burnt offerings to them, but before the LORD their God only.¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the prophets who prophesied concerning him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.¹⁹ His prayer, also, and how the LORD heard his voice, and all his sins and his iniquity, and the places on which he built altars and appointed priests, and the shrines he built for the idols, behold, they are written among the sayings of Hanan the prophet.²⁰ So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house, in the garden of the treasury; and Arnon his son reigned in his stead.

²¹ And Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.²² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done; for Arnon sacrificed to all the images and idols which Manasseh his father had made and worshipped them;²³ And he did not humble himself before the LORD his God, as Manasseh humbled himself before the LORD his God; but Amon committed sins more and more.²⁴ And his servants conspired against him and slew him in his own house.²⁵ But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Arnon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.