2Ch 33 | EE | STEP | Manasseh was 12 years old when he started to rule. And he ruled in Jerusalem for 55 years.

2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh becomes king and he does wrong things

1 Manasseh was 12 years old when he started to rule. And he ruled in Jerusalem for 55 years. 2 He did very wrong things that the LORD did not like. The people who lived in the country before the Israelites had done all those things. The LORD had helped the Israelites to push those people out of their country. 3 Manasseh built again the high places for worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars to worship the Baals and the Asherahs. He bent his body to worship all the stars in the sky. 4 The LORD had said about the LORD‘s house, ‘My name will be in Jerusalem for all time.’ But Manasseh built altars in the LORD‘s house. 5 He built altars in the two yards of the house of the LORD to worship all the stars. 6 He sacrificed his sons by fire in the Ben-Hinnom Valley. He did magic and he tried to know about future events in wrong ways. He used people who spoke to spirits. He used people who did magic. He did a lot of very wrong things that the LORD did not like. So the LORD became angry with him. ^{▼▼33:6 Manasseh was the king of Judah from about 687 BC to 642 BC.}

7 He made an idol out of wood and he put it in God’s house. But God had said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘I will put my name in this house for all time. I have chosen Jerusalem from the cities of all Israel’s tribes. I chose it as the place to put my name for all time. 8 I do not want to take Israel’s people away again from this country that I gave to your ancestors. But they must be careful to obey all the rules that are in my Law. And they must be careful to obey all the laws and the rules that I gave to them by Moses.’ 9 But Manasseh caused Judah’s people and the people in Jerusalem to sin. So they did more evil things than any of the nations that the LORD had destroyed. The LORD had destroyed those nations when he brought the Israelites into their country.

The LORD punishes Manasseh

10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people. But they would not listen to the LORD. 11 So the LORD brought the officers of the king of Assyria’s army to attack them. They took Manasseh. And they put a piece of metal in his nose and metal chains to tie his feet together. Then they took him to Babylon. 12 When Manasseh had a lot of trouble, he asked the LORD his God to help him. He told the God of his ancestors that he was not a great man.

The LORD lets Manasseh return to Jerusalem as king

13 When he prayed to God, and God listened to him. And he listened to what Manasseh was asking for. So he brought Manasseh to Jerusalem again. And he caused him to become king again. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

14 After that, he built a new wall outside the wall of David’s City. He built it to the west of Gihon, in the valley and at the way in to the Fish Gate. The wall went round the hill called Ophel. And he made the wall very high. And Manasseh put officers and soldiers in all the strong cities in Judah.

Judah’s people worship the LORD again

15 He took away the gods of other nations and the idol from the LORD‘s house. He took out all the altars that he had built on the hill of the LORD‘s house and in Jerusalem. He threw them out of the city. 16 Then he did repairs to the LORD‘s altar. He sacrificed friendship-offerings and thank-offerings on it. He told Judah that they must be servants of the LORD, the God of Israel. 17 But the people still sacrificed on the high places. But they only burnt sacrifices there to the LORD their God.

The last days of Manasseh’s life

18 The other things that Manasseh did are in ‘The Book about the Kings of Israel’. The prayer that Manasseh said to his God is in it too. And there were prophets who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. Their words are in it too. 19 The words that he prayed are in another book. That book is called ‘What the Prophets Recorded’. What he asked God for is in it too. The prophets also recorded in it all his sins and how he had not been faithful to God. He had built the high places to worship false gods. He had put up Asherahs and other idols in those places before he made himself humble. The prophets recorded all those places in that book. 20 Manasseh died and his servants buried him in his own house. Then his son Amon ruled instead.

Amon king of Judah

21 Amon was 22 years old when he began to rule. And he ruled in Jerusalem for 2 years. 22 He did all the very wrong things that his father Manasseh had done. The LORD did not like those things. And Amon gave sacrifices to all the idols that his father Manasseh had made. And he worshipped them. 23 But he did not make himself humble in front of the LORD as his father Manasseh made himself humble. Instead, Amon did even more very bad things than his father had done.

Amon dies

24 Amon’s servants decided to kill him and they killed him in his own house. 25 Then all the people in that country killed the men who had decided to kill King Amon. And they chose his son Josiah to be king instead. ^{▼▼33:25 Amon was king for only two years from about 642 to 640 BC.}