2 Chronicles 33
33
King Manasseh
1-6Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. In God’s opinion he was a bad king—an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel. He rebuilt the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and the sex goddess Asherah and worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God’s decree to God’s Name (“in Jerusalem I place my Name”). He burned his own sons in a sacrificial rite in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He practiced witchcraft and fortunetelling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil—in God’s view a career in evil. And God was angry.
7-8As a last straw he placed a carved image of the sex goddess Asherah that he had commissioned in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God’s well-known command to both David and Solomon, “In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name—exclusively and forever.” He had promised, “Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I’ve given to their ancestors. But on this condition, that they keep everything I’ve commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them.”
9-10But Manasseh led Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem off the beaten path into practices of evil exceeding even the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed. When God spoke to Manasseh and his people about this, they ignored him.
11-13Then God directed the leaders of the troops of the king of Assyria to come after Manasseh. They put a hook in his nose, shackles on his feet, and took him off to Babylon. Now that he was in trouble, he dropped to his knees in prayer asking for help—total repentance before the God of his ancestors. As he prayed, God was touched; God listened and brought him back to Jerusalem as king. That convinced Manasseh that God was in control.
14-17After that Manasseh rebuilt the outside defensive wall of the City of David to the west of the Gihon spring in the valley. It went from the Fish Gate and around the hill of Ophel. He also increased its height. He tightened up the defense system by posting army captains in all the fortress cities of Judah. He also did a good spring cleaning on The Temple, carting out the pagan idols and the goddess statue. He took all the altars he had set up on The Temple hill and throughout Jerusalem and dumped them outside the city. He put the Altar of God back in working order and restored worship, sacrificing Peace-Offerings and Thank-Offerings. He issued orders to the people: “You shall serve and worship God, the God of Israel.” But the people didn’t take him seriously—they used the name “God” but kept on going to the old pagan neighborhood shrines and doing the same old things.
18-19The rest of the history of Manasseh—his prayer to his God, and the sermons the prophets personally delivered by authority of God, the God of Israel—this is all written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. His prayer and how God was touched by his prayer, a list of all his sins and the things he did wrong, the actual places where he built the pagan shrines, the installation of the sex-goddess Asherah sites, and the idolatrous images that he worshiped previous to his conversion—this is all described in the records of the prophets.
20When Manasseh died, they buried him in the palace garden. His son Amon was the next king.
King Amon
21-23Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. In God’s opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh, but he never did repent to God as Manasseh repented. He just kept at it, going from one thing to another.
24-25In the end Amon’s servants revolted and assassinated him—killed the king right in his own palace. The citizens in their turn then killed the king’s assassins. The citizens then crowned Josiah, Amon’s son, as king.
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2 Chronicles 33: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
2 Chronicles 33
33
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2 But he did evil before the Lord, in accord with all the abominations of the nations which the Lord overturned before the sons of Israel.
3 And turning away, he repaired the high places, which had been demolished by his father, Hezekiah. And he constructed altars to the Baals, and made sacred groves. And he adored the entire army of heaven, and he served them.
4 Also, he built altars in the house of the Lord, about which the Lord had said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever."
5 But he built these for the entire army of heaven, in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
6 And he caused his sons to pass through fire in the Valley of the son of Hinnom. He observed dreams, followed divinations, served the occult arts, had with him magicians and enchanters, and worked many evils before the Lord, so that he provoked him.
7 Also, he set up a graven image and molten statue in the house of God, about which God said to David, and to his son Solomon: "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name forever.
8 And I will not cause the foot of Israel to be moved from the land which I delivered to their fathers. Yet this is so, only if they will take care to do what I have instructed them, by the hand of Moses, with the entire law and the ceremonies and the judgments."
9 And so Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil, more so than all the nations which the Lord had overturned before the face of the sons of Israel.
10 And the Lord spoke to him and to his people, but they were not willing to pay attention.
11 Therefore, he led over them the leaders of the army of the king of the Assyrians. And they captured Manasseh, and they led him, bound with chains and fetters, to Babylon.
12 And after this, being in great anguish, he prayed to the Lord his God. And he did penance greatly before the God of his fathers.
13 And he petitioned and begged him intently. And he heeded his prayer, and led him back to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. And Manasseh realized that the Lord himself was God.
14 After these things, he built a wall outside the City of David, to the west of Gihon, at the steep valley, from the entrance to the fish gate, circling around as far as Ophel. And he raised it up greatly. And he appointed leaders of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.
15 And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol from the house of the Lord, and also the altars which he had made on the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem. And he cast all these things outside the city.
16 Then he repaired the altar of the Lord, and he immolated upon it victims, and peace offerings, with praise. And he instructed Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.
17 Yet still the people were immolating on the high places, to the Lord their God.
18 But the rest of the deeds of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and also the words of the seers who were speaking to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are contained in the words of the kings of Israel.
19 Also, his prayer and its heeding, and all his sins and contempt, and the sites on which he built high places and made sacred groves and statues, before he repented, have been written in the words of Hozai.
20 Then Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And his son, Amon, reigned in his place.
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem.
22 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh had done. And he immolated to all the idols that Manasseh had fabricated, and he served them.
23 But he did not turn his face to the Lord, as his father Manasseh had turned himself. And he sinned much more grievously.
24 And when his servants had conspired against him, they killed him in his own house.
25 But the rest of the multitude of the people, having slain those who had struck down Amon, appointed his son, Josiah, as king in his place.
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