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2 Chronicles 33

The Message Bible MSG

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

2 In God's opinion he was a bad king - an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel.

3 He rebuilt the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and the sex goddess Asherah and worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations.

4 He built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God,

5 the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God's decree to God's Name ("in Jerusalem I place my Name").

6 He burned his own sons in a sacrificial rite in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He practiced witchcraft and fortunetelling. He held sŽances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil - in God's view a career in evil. And God was angry.

7 As a last straw he placed a carved image of the sex goddess Asherah that he had commissioned in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God's well-known command to both David and Solomon, "In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name - exclusively and forever."

8 He had promised, "Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I've given to their ancestors. But on this condition, that they keep everything I've commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them."

9 But Manasseh led Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem off the beaten path into practices of evil exceeding even the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed.

10 When God spoke to Manasseh and his people about this, they ignored him.

11 Then God directed the leaders of the troops of the king of Assyria to come after Manasseh. They put a hook in his nose, shackles on his feet, and took him off to Babylon.

12 Now that he was in trouble, he went to his knees in prayer asking for help - total repentance before the God of his ancestors.

13 As he prayed, God was touched; God listened and brought him back to Jerusalem as king. That convinced Manasseh that God was in control.

14 After that Manasseh rebuilt the outside defensive wall of the City of David to the west of the Gihon spring in the valley. It went from the Fish Gate and around the hill of Ophel. He also increased its height. He tightened up the defense system by posting army captains in all the fortress cities of Judah.

15 He also did a good spring cleaning on The Temple, carting out the pagan idols and the goddess statue. He took all the altars he had set up on The Temple hill and throughout Jerusalem and dumped them outside the city.

16 He put the Altar of God back in working order and restored worship, sacrificing Peace-Offerings and Thank-Offerings. He issued orders to the people: "You shall serve and worship God, the God of Israel."

17 But the people didn't take him seriously - they used the name "God" but kept on going to the old pagan neighborhood shrines and doing the same old things.

18 The rest of the history of Manasseh - his prayer to his God, and the sermons the prophets personally delivered by authority of God, the God of Israel - this is all written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

19 His prayer and how God was touched by his prayer, a list of all his sins and the things he did wrong, the actual places where he built the pagan shrines, the installation of the sex-goddess Asherah sites, and the idolatrous images that he worshiped previous to his conversion - this is all described in the records of the prophets.

20 When Manasseh died, they buried him in the palace garden. His son Amon was the next king.

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem.

22 In God's opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh,

23 but he never did repent to God as Manasseh repented. He just kept at it, going from one thing to another.

24 In the end Amon's servants revolted and assassinated him - killed the king right in his own palace.

25 The citizens in their turn then killed the king's assassins. The citizens then crowned Josiah, Amon's son, as king.

New Living Translation NLT

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

2 He did what was evil in the LORD ’s sight, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.

3 He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father, Hezekiah, had broken down. He constructed altars for the images of Baal and set up Asherah poles. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them.

4 He built pagan altars in the Temple of the LORD, the place where the LORD had said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

5 He built these altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the LORD ’s Temple.

6 Manasseh also sacrificed his own sons in the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the LORD ’s sight, arousing his anger.

7 Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in God’s Temple, the very place where God had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel.

8 If the Israelites will be careful to obey my commands—all the laws, decrees, and regulations given through Moses—I will not send them into exile from this land that I set aside for your ancestors.”

9 But Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem to do even more evil than the pagan nations that the LORD had destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land.

10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings.

11 So the LORD sent the commanders of the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner. They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.

12 But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the LORD his God and sincerely humbled himself before the God of his ancestors.

13 And when he prayed, the LORD listened to him and was moved by his request. So the LORD brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh finally realized that the LORD alone is God!

14 After this Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, from west of the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley to the Fish Gate, and continuing around the hill of Ophel. He built the wall very high. And he stationed his military officers in all of the fortified towns of Judah.

15 Manasseh also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the LORD ’s Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.

16 Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He also encouraged the people of Judah to worship the LORD, the God of Israel.

17 However, the people still sacrificed at the pagan shrines, though only to the LORD their God.

18 The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, his prayer to God, and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are recorded in

19 Manasseh’s prayer, the account of the way God answered him, and an account of all his sins and unfaithfulness are recorded in It includes a list of the locations where he built pagan shrines and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself and repented.

20 When Manasseh died, he was buried in his palace. Then his son Amon became the next king.

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.

22 He did what was evil in the LORD ’s sight, just as his father, Manasseh, had done. He worshiped and sacrificed to all the idols his father had made.

23 But unlike his father, he did not humble himself before the LORD . Instead, Amon sinned even more.

24 Then Amon’s own officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace.

25 But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah the next king.