Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was
Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD
drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high
places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected
altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had
done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he
built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said,
“In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the
host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he
burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens
and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in
the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And the carved image
of Asherah that he had made he set 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 the tribes of Israel, I
will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel
to wander anymore out of 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.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them
astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD
destroyed before the people of Israel.

  And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh
king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things
more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and
has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the
LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and
Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will
tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of
Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe
Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside
down. And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them
into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a
spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in
my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers
came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

  Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he
made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of
the LORD.

  Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and the
sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his
fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of
Uzza, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

  Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth
the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did what was evil in the
sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. He walked in
all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that
his father served and worshiped them. He abandoned the LORD, the
God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. And
the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to
death in his house. 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. Now the rest of the
acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And he was buried in his tomb in
the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.