1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hephzibah.2He did what was bad in the eyes of the LORD, like the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel.3He returned and rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he erected altars to Baal, made an Asherah just as Ahab king of Israel had done, and bowed down to all the host of heaven and served them.4He built altars in the house of the LORD, where the LORD had said, 'In Jerusalem I will set my name.'5He built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.6He made his son pass through the fire; he practiced divination and soothsaying; he appointed a medium and spiritists. He did much that was bad in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.7He placed the carved image of the Asherah that he had made in the house of which the LORD had spoken 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 set my name forever.'8I will not again cause the foot of Israel to wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, provided they carefully keep all that I commanded them and all the instruction that my servant Moses commanded them.9They did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do evil, more than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the sons of Israel.10The LORD spoke through his servants the prophets, saying,11Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols,12Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such distress upon Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.'13I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab; I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish and turns it face down.14I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies,15because they have done what was bad in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their fathers came out of Egypt until this day.16Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, in addition to the sin by which he caused Judah to sin, doing what was bad in the eyes of the LORD.17Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, 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?18Manasseh lay down with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzzah. His son Amon reigned in his place.