Manasseh Reigns in Judah
1 1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
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And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to
2the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
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For he rebuilt the high places
3that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made
4Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
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And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said,
5"In Jerusalem shall my name be forever."
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And he built altars for all the host of heaven in
6the two courts of the house of the LORD.
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7And he burned his sons as an offering
8in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and
9used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with
10mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
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And
11the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, 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,
12I will put my name forever,
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and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land
13that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses."
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Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.