21 Menasheh was twelve years old when he began to reign as melech, and reigned fifty and five years in Yerushalayim. And shem immo was Cheftzi-Vah.

² And he did that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem, after the to’avot of the Goyim, whom Hashem drove out before the Bnei Yisroel.

³ For he built up again the [idolatrous] high places which Chizkiyah aviv had destroyed; and he reared up mizbechot for Ba’al, and made Asherah, as did Ach’av Melech Yisroel; and bowed down in worship to kol Tzava HaShomayim, and served them.

⁴ And he built mizbechot in the Beis Hashem, of which Hashem said, In Yerushalayim will I put Shmi (My Name).

⁵ And he built mizbechot for kol Tzava HaShomayim in the two khatzerot (courtyards) of the Beis Hashem.

⁶ And he made bno pass through the eish, and practiced sorcery, and witchcraft, and dealt with familiar spirits [i.e., he consulted mediums] and spiritists; he wrought much rah in the eyes of Hashem, to provoke Him to anger.

⁷ And he set a pesel HaAsherah he had made in the Beis [Hashem] of which Hashem said to Dovid, and to Sh’lomo bno, In this Beis, and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all Shivtei Yisroel, will I put Shmi (My Name) l’olam;

⁸ Neither will I make the regel Yisroel move any more out of ha’adamah (the land) which I gave their avot; only if they will be shomer to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the torah that avdi Moshe commanded them.

⁹ But they paid heed not; and Menasheh seduced them to do rah more than did the Goyim whom Hashem destroyed before the Bnei Yisroel.

¹⁶ Moreover Menasheh was guilty of much shefach dahm of the innocent, till he had filled Yerushalayim from one end to another; besides his chattot wherewith he caused Yehudah to commit sin, in doing that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem.