1Manasseh was of twelve years, when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem five and fifty years.

2And he did evil before the Lord after the abominations of heathen men, whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

3And he turned, and restored the high places, which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed. And he builded altars to Baalim, and made woods, and worshipped all the knighthood of heaven, and praised it.

4And he builded altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, My name shall be in Jeru-salem without end.

5Soothly he builded those altars to all the knighthood of heaven in the two large places of the house of the Lord.

6And he made his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; he kept dreams; he pursued [or followed] false divining by chit-tering of birds; and he served witch-crafts; and he had with him astrono-mers and enchanters, either tregetours, that deceived men’s wits, and he wrought many evils before the Lord to stir him to wrath.

7And he set a graven and a molten sign in the house of the Lord, of which house God spake to David, and to Solomon, his son, and said, I shall set my name without end in this house, and in Jerusalem, which I chose of all the lineages of Israel;

8and I shall not make the foot of Israel to move from the land which I gave to their fathers, so only that they take heed to do those things that I have commanded to them, and all the law, and ceremonies, and dooms, by the hand of Moses.

9But Manasseh deceived the men of Judah, and the dwellers of Jerusalem, so that they did evil, more than all heathen men, which the Lord had destroyed from the face of the sons of Israel.

10And the Lord spake to him, and to his people; and they would not take heed.

11Therefore the Lord brought upon them the princes of the host of the king of Assyrians; and they took Manasseh, and bound him with chains, and stocks, and led him into Babylon.

12And after that he was anguished, he prayed the Lord his God, and did penance greatly before the God of his fathers.

13And he prayed God, and beseech-ed him intently; and God heard his prayer, and brought him again into Jerusalem into his realm; and then Manasseh knew, that the Lord himself is God alone.

14After these things he builded the wall without or outside the city of David, at the west side of Gihon, in the valley, from the entering of the gate of fishes, by compass unto Ophel; and he raised it up greatly; and he ordained princes of the host in all the strong cities of Judah.

15And he did away alien gods and simulacra from the house of the Lord; and he did away the altars, which he had made in the hill of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and he casted them away all without the city.

16Certainly he restored the altar of the Lord, and offered thereon slain sacrifices, and peaceable sacrifices, and praising; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.

17Nevertheless the people offered yet in high places to the Lord their God.

18Forsooth the residue of [the] deeds of Manasseh, and his beseeching to his Lord God, and the words of [the] prophets, that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, be contained in the words of the kings of Israel.

19And his prayer, and the hearing that the Lord heard him, and all his sins, and all his despising, and also the places in which he builded high things, and made maumet woods and images, before that he did penance, these be written in the book of Hozai.

20And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house; and Amon, his son, reigned for him.

21Amon was of two and twenty years, when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

22And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh, his father, had done; and he offered, and served to all the idols, which Manasseh had made.

23And he reverenced not the face of the Lord, as Manasseh, his father, reverenced; and he did much greater trespasses than his father did.

24And when his servants had sworn together against him, they killed him in his house.

25Soothly the residue multitude of the people, after that they had slain them that had slain Amon, ordained Josiah, his son, king for him.