Chronicles of the Past Dynasties_Chapter 33

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

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the foreigners whom the Lord had driven out before the Israelites,

He rebuilt the high altar that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, built an altar for Baal, made wooden poles, and worshipped and served all the phenomena in heaven,

Build an altar in the house of the Lord, and the Lord said of this house, My name will be in Jerusalem forever.

He built altars for all the phenomena in heaven in the two courtyards of the temple of the Lord,

And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and to observe signs, to use magic, to do sorcery, to associate with demons, and to do many evil things in the eyes of the Lord, to provoke his anger,

And erected carved idols in the temple. God once said to David and his son Solomon, ‘I will establish my name in Jerusalem and this temple, which I have chosen among the tribes of Israel, forever.’.

If the Israelites keep and do all the laws, decrees, and ordinances that I commanded them through Moses, I will no longer cause them to be moved away from the land I have given to their ancestors.

Manasseh tempted the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

The Lord warned Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.

So the Lord sent the commanders of the king of Assyria to attack them, hooking Manasseh with a cymbal and binding him with bronze chains, and bringing him to Babylon.

In times of distress, he pleaded with the Lord his God and greatly humbled himself before the gods of his ancestors.

He prayed to the Lord, and the Lord agreed to his prayers. He listened to his prayers and brought him back to Jerusalem, and he continued to sit on the throne. Manasseh then realized that only the Lord was God.

Afterwards, Manasseh built a wall outside the city of David, from the west side of Gihon in the valley to the entrance to the fish gate, surrounding Ophel. The wall was built very high. And he set up brave commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

And he removed the gods of the Gentiles and the idols in the house of the Lord, and he also destroyed all the altars he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

Reconstruct the altar of the Lord, offer peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it, and command the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.

But the people continued to offer sacrifices on high places, only to the Lord their God.

The rest of Manasseh’s events and the words of prayer to his God, as well as the words of the seer who warned him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, are all written in the book of the kings of Israel.

His prayers and how God answered him, his sins and offenses before he humbled himself, and where he built high places and set up Asherah and carved images, are all written in the book of Hosai.

Manasseh slept with his ancestors and was buried in his own palace. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

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

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of his father Manasseh, offering sacrifices and serving the idols carved by his father Manasseh,

Not feeling inferior before the Lord like his father Manasseh. The crimes committed by these people are getting bigger and bigger.

His servants betrayed and killed him in the palace.

But the people killed those who betrayed King Amon and appointed his son Josiah as king in his place.