1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the children of Israel.
3. He went back and rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal, made an Asherah pole as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.
4. He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.”
5. He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
6. He made his son pass through the fire, was conjuring and seeking omens, and dealt with mediums and soothsayers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
7. He put a carved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.
8. I will not make the feet of Israel to wander homeless from the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.”
9. But they did not listen. Manasseh led them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10. The Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying,
11. “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, things more evil than all that the Amorites did, and has also caused Judah to sin with his idols,
12. therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: I am bringing evil on Jerusalem and Judah, such evil that the ears of whoever hears about it will tingle.