1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. 3For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. 4He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever." 5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6He also made his children to pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums, and spiritists: he worked much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 7He 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, will I put my name forever: 8neither will I 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 and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses." 9Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel did.

10The LORD spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed. 11Therefore the LORD brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. 12When he was in distress, he begged the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his petition, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

14Now after this he built an outer wall to the City of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the Fish Gate; and 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. 15He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16He built up the altar of the LORD, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. 17Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only to the LORD their God.

18Now 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, look, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel. 19His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the engraved images, before he humbled himself, look, they are written in the Record of the Seers. 20So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the garden of his own house. And Amon his son reigned in his place.

21Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them. 23He did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more. 24His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house. 25But 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.