2 Chronicles 33:10-34:7

English Standard Version

Manasseh's Repentance

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. ^11 (A)Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and ^(B)bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. ¹² And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God ^(C)and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ He prayed to him, and ^(D)God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. ^(E)Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

¹⁴ Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of ^(F)Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into ^(G)the Fish Gate, and carried it around ^(H)Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. ¹⁵ And ^(I)he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. ¹⁶ He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. ^17 (J)Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and ^(K)his prayer to his God, and the words of ^(L)the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the ^(M)Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁹ And his prayer, and how ^(N)God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites ^(O)on which he built high places and set up the ^(P)Asherim and the images, before ^(Q)he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.^{[a] 20} So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon's Reign and Death

^21 (R)Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. ²² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images ^(S)that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. ²³ And he did not humble himself before the Lord, ^(T)as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. ²⁴ And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house. ²⁵ But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

Josiah Reigns in Judah

34 ^(U)Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ^(V)Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. ⁴ And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the ^(W)incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the ^(X)Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and ^(Y)scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ^5 (Z)He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And in the ^(AA)cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins^[b] all around, ⁷ he broke down the altars and beat the ^(AB)Asherim and the images ^(AC)into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.