2 Chronicles 33:1-9

Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

Judah’s King Manasseh

33 Manasseh was twelve years old^(A) when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^{(B) 3} He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down^(C) and re-established the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served them. ⁴ He built altars^(D) in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, ‘Jerusalem is where my name will remain for ever.’^{(E) 5} He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards^(F) of the Lord’s temple. ⁶ He passed his sons through the fire in Ben Hinnom Valley.^(G) He practised witchcraft, divination, and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists.^(H) He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.

⁷ Manasseh^(I) set up a carved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s temple^(J) that God had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: ‘I will establish my name for ever^[a](K) in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.^{(L) 8} I will never again remove the feet of the Israelites from the land where I stationed your^[b](M) ancestors,^(N) if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them through Moses – all the law, statutes, and judgements.’ ⁹ So Manasseh caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.