2 Chronicles 33:1-9
Manasseh rules Judah as king
1 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. He ruled as king in Jerusalem for 55 years. 2 Manasseh did things that the Lord said were evil. He did the same terrible sins that the other nations in Canaan had done. Those were the nations that the Lord had chased out so that the Israelites could live there. 3 Manasseh built again the altars on the hills that his father Hezekiah had knocked down. He built altars for people to worship idols of Baal. He also made Asherah poles. He bent down low to worship all the stars in the sky. 4 He built altars in the Lord's temple. The Lord had said about his temple, ‘That is my home in Jerusalem where people will worship me for ever.’ 5 Manasseh built altars to give honour to the stars in both yards of the Lord's temple. 6 He burnt his own sons with fire as a sacrifice in Ben Hinnom valley. He used magic and false gods to find out what would happen in the future. He took advice from magicians and people who talked to the spirits of dead people. He did many things that the Lord said were very evil. This made the Lord very angry.
33:4These were altars to give honour to false gods, not to the Lord.
7 Manasseh made an image of a false god. He put this idol in God's temple. God had said this about his temple to King David and to his son King Solomon: ‘My people will worship me in my temple here in Jerusalem. That is the place that I have chosen to be my home for ever. I have chosen it from among all the tribes of Israel. 8 I will never cause the Israelite people to leave this land that I gave to their ancestors. But they must be careful to obey all my commands, my laws and the rules that I gave to my servant Moses for them.’
9 But Manasseh caused Judah's people and the people of Jerusalem to turn away from God. So they did more evil things than the people who lived in Canaan before them. The Lord had destroyed those nations so that the Israelites could live there.
