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¹ MANASSEH was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mothers name was Hephzibah.² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations which the LORD destroyed from before the children of Israel.³ For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made idols, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.⁴ And he built an altar in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.⁶ And he caused his son to pass through the fire, and used divinations and practiced augury and appointed men with familiar spirits and wizards; he wrought much which was evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.⁷ And he set up the image and the idol that he had made in the house of the LORD, in the house of which the LORD 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, will I put my name for ever;⁸ Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave to their fathers, only if they will observe to do everything that I have commanded them and all the laws that my servant Moses commanded them.⁹ But they did not hearken; and Manasseh seduced them, and they did more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And the LORD spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,¹¹ Because Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah has done these abominations and has done more wickedly than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also sin with his idols;¹² Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Judah and upon Jerusalem that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will smite Jerusalem and destroy it because of all the abominations which Manasseh had done in Judah.¹⁴ And I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and be trampled under the feet of all their enemies,¹⁵ Because they have done that which was evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day.¹⁶ Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sins wherewith he made Judah sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.¹⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and the sins that he sinned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.¹⁸ And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of the treasury; and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

¹⁹ Arnon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mothers name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haduz of Jotbath.²⁰ And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.²¹ And he walked in all the ways that his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshipped them;²² And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.²³ And the servants of Amon conspired against him and slew him in his own house.²⁴ And the people of the land slew all those that had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amon and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.²⁶ And they buried him in his sepulchre in the garden of the treasury; and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.