1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother was Hephzibah.
2 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, copying the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he set up altars to Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he bowed down to the whole host of heaven and served them.
4 He built altars in the LORD's house, the place of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will set my name."
5 In both courts of the LORD's house he built altars to the whole host of heaven.
6 He made his son pass through the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a great deal of evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him.
7 He took the carved image of Asherah he had made and set it in the house of which the LORD had told David and his son Solomon, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will set my name forever.
8 Never again will I make Israel's feet wander from the land I gave their fathers, if only they take care to do all I have commanded them, keeping the whole law my servant Moses gave them."
9 But they would not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets:
11 "Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations. He has done more evil than the Amorites who were before him, and with his idols he has led Judah into sin as well.
12 So this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I am bringing such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the plumb line used on Ahab's house. I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl, wiping it and turning it upside down.
14 I will abandon what remains of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and looted by all their enemies,
15 because they have done evil in my sight and have kept provoking me from the day their fathers came out of Egypt until this very day.'"
16 Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from end to end, besides the sin he led Judah into, so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
17 As for the rest of the deeds of Manasseh and all he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
18 Manasseh lay down with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his palace, the garden of Uzza, and his son Amon became king in his place.
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
20 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Manasseh had done.
21 He followed in every way the path his father had walked, serving the idols his father had served and bowing down to them.
22 He forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the LORD's way.
23 Amon's servants plotted against him and killed the king in his palace.
24 Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
25 As for the rest of the deeds of Amon, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.