3
For he rebuilt the high places
1that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made
2Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
4
And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said,
3"In Jerusalem shall my name be forever."
5
And he built altars for all the host of heaven in
4the two courts of the house of the LORD.
6
5And he burned his sons as an offering
6in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and
7used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with
8mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
7
And
9the 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,
10I will put my name forever,
8
and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land
11that 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."
9
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.
Manasseh's Repentance
10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
11
12Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and
13bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
12
And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God
14and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
13
He prayed to him, and
15God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
16Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.