Old Testament · History

2 Chronicles chapter 33

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became , and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.He did what was in Yahweh’s eyes, following the of the nations that Yahweh had driven out ahead of the Israelites.He rebuilt the that his father Hezekiah had torn down, set up altars for the , made , and bowed down to the entire , serving them.He built altars in — the very place where Yahweh had said, “My will be in Jerusalem forever.”He built altars for the entire army of the sky in both courtyards of Yahweh’s house.He in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, practiced and divination and witchcraft, and consulted . He piled up massive evil in Yahweh’s eyes, provoking him.He even placed a he had made inside God’s house — the house about which God 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 put my name forever.”“I will never again make Israel’s feet wander from the land I gave to their ancestors — if only they are careful to do everything I commanded them through Moses: all the , the , and the .”But Manasseh Judah and the people of Jerusalem that they did worse things than the nations Yahweh had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they refused to listen.So Yahweh brought the army commanders of the king of Assyria against them. They captured Manasseh with , bound him with bronze chains, and hauled him off to .When he was in deep trouble, he begged Yahweh his God for help and before the God of his ancestors.He prayed to him, and Yahweh by his plea and heard his cry for help. He brought him back to Jerusalem, back to his kingdom. That’s when Manasseh that Yahweh was the true God.After this, he built an outer wall for the , west of the Gihon Spring in the valley, extending to the entrance of the Fish Gate. He ran it around the Ophel and made it very high. He also stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.He removed the foreign gods and the idol from Yahweh’s house, along with all the altars he had built on the Temple hill and in Jerusalem, and threw them outside the city.Then he restored Yahweh’s altar and offered and on it. He told Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel.The people still sacrificed at the elevated shrines, but only to Yahweh their God.The rest of Manasseh’s story — his prayer to his God, and the words of the who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel — you can find all of that in the records of the kings of Israel.His prayer, and how God was moved by it, all his and , the sites where he built elevated shrines and set up Asherah poles and carved images before he humbled himself — all of this is written in the records of the seers.Manasseh , and they buried him in his own palace. His son Amon became king in his place.Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.He did what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes, just like his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved idols his father Manasseh had made and served them.But unlike his father Manasseh, he before Yahweh. Instead, Amon just kept piling up more and more .His own officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his own palace.But the struck down everyone who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.