1 Manasseh was twelve years old {ben-shteim esre shanah: Hebrew age expression} when he began to reign {bemalkho: commencement of sovereignty}, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2 And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Moral Judge}, like the abominations {toeavot: Ritual and Moral Depravity} of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel.
3 And he returned and rebuilt the high places {bamot: hilltop worship sites} that Hezekiah his father had demolished, and he erected altars to the Baals and made Asherahs. He bowed down to all the host of the heavens {tseva: celestial armies} and served them.
4 And he built altars {mizbechot: illicit worship sites} in the house of the LORD {YHWH, Indwelling Presence}, about which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem my name will be forever.”
5 And he built altars {mizbechot: sacrificial platforms} for all the host of the heavens in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Dwelling}.
6 And he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, and he practiced soothsaying {onen: fortune-telling}, divination, and sorcery, and he used mediums and spiritists. He multiplied evil greatly in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}, provoking Him to anger.
7 And he placed the carved image {pesel: hand-carved idol} that he had made in the house of God {Elohim, Sovereign Ruler}, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.”
8 I {YHWH, Faithful Promise Keeper} will not again remove the foot {regel: Israel’s foothold} of Israel from upon the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they are careful to do all that I have commanded them—all the Torah and the statutes and the judgments by the hand of Moses.
9 And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do evil {ra: moral corruption} beyond the nations whom the LORD {YHWH, Faithful Judge} destroyed before the sons of Israel.
10 And the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Admonisher} spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not listen {hikshivu: pay heed carefully}.
11 And the LORD {YHWH, Divine Judge} brought upon them the commanders of the army who belonged to the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks {chochim: instruments of restraint}, bound him with bronze shackles, and led him to Babylon.
12 And when he was distressed, he pleaded before the presence of the LORD {YHWH, Merciful Restorer} his God, and he humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors {avotav: patriarchal lineage}.
13 And he prayed to Him and He was entreated for him, and He heard his supplication, and He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD {YHWH, Merciful Restorer} is the God {Elohim, Supreme Deity}.
14 And after this, he erected an outer wall around the City of David {ir-David: David’s urban quarter}, extending westward toward the Gihon spring in the valley and up to the entrance of the Fish Gate; he then encompassed the Ophel {Ophel: fortified ridge} and raised it to a great height, and he installed commanders of war in every fortified city in Judah.
15 And he removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD {YHWH, Temple Guardian}, along with all the altars he had erected on the mountain {har: sacred elevation} of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem; then he cast them beyond the city walls.
16 And he restored the altar of the LORD {YHWH, Temple Restorer}, and he offered on it peace offerings {shelamim: fellowship offering} and a thanksgiving offering, and he said to Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.
17 But still, the people were sacrificing at the high places—only to the LORD {YHWH, Exclusive Recipient} their God {Elohim, Covenant Deity of Israel}.
18 And the rest of the words of Manasseh, and his prayer {tefillah: earnest supplication} to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel {YHWH Elohei Yisrael, Sovereign Covenant Lord}, are written in the records of the kings of Israel.
19 And his prayer {tefillah: earnest plea} and how his appeal was answered, and all his sin and his unfaithfulness, and the places where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before his humbling {hikana: personal submission}—behold, they are written in the records of the seers.
20 And Manasseh lay down with his fathers{avotav: male ancestors}, and they buried him in his house{beito: royal residence}. Then Amon his son became king in his place.
21 Amon was twenty-two {ben esrim u-shteyim shanah: son of twenty and two years idiom} years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem {Yerushalayim: royal capital}.
22 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Moral Judge}, just as his father Manasseh had done. To all the idols {pesilim: carved images} that his father Manasseh had made, Amon sacrificed and served them.
23 But he did not humble himself before the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, for Amon increased guilt {ashmah: moral wrongdoing}.
24 And his servants {avadav: royal attendants} conspired against him and killed him in his house {beyit: personal residence}.
25 And the people of the land struck down all the conspirators {kosh-rim: royal plotters} against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah {Yoshiyahu: royal heir} his son king in his place.