The Lord punishes Manasseh
10 The Lord warned Manasseh and his people. But they would not listen to him. 11 So the Lord brought the officers of the king of Assyria's army to attack them. They took hold of Manasseh. They put metal hooks in his nose and they tied bronze chains around him. Then they took him away to Babylon. 12 This gave Manasseh a lot of pain. He asked the Lord his God to be kind to him. He made himself humble and he prayed for help to the Lord, the God of his ancestors.
13 When Manasseh prayed to the Lord, the Lord answered him. He was kind to Manasseh, as Manasseh had asked him to be. So the Lord brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem again, to rule there as king. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is the true God.
14 After that, Manasseh repaired the outside wall of the City of David. He built it higher, from the west side of Gihon stream, as far as the Fish Gate. Then he continued around Ophel hill. He built the wall up higher than it had been. He also put army officers with their soldiers in all the strong cities of Judah.
15 Manasseh removed from the Lord's temple the foreign gods and the idol that he had put there. He also removed the altars that he had built on the hill of the temple and in other places in Jerusalem. He threw them away, outside the city. 16 Then he repaired the Lord's altar in the temple. He brought friendship offerings and thank offerings as sacrifices on the altar. He told Judah's people to worship the Lord, Israel's God. 17 The people still offered sacrifices at the other altars in the country. But they only offered those sacrifices to the Lord their God.
