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2 Chronicles 33
The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.
Manasseh king of Judah
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles, and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, "In Jerusalem shall My name be forever." 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. 6 He also made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and practiced soothsaying and interpreted omens and practiced sorcery, and appointed a medium and a spiritist. He did much evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to anger. 7 And he set the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of Elohim, of which Elohim had 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; 8 and I will not again remove the feet of Israel from the land which I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to all the Torah and the statutes and the judgments given by the hand of Moses." 9 So Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil than the nations whom Yahweh had destroyed before the children of Israel.
Manasseh's captivity and repentance
10 And Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. 11 Therefore Yahweh brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters and carried him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in distress, he sought the favor of Yahweh his Elohim and humbled himself greatly before the Elohim of his fathers. 13 He prayed to Him, and He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh, He is the Elohim.
14 Afterward he built an outer wall for the City of David, west of Gihon in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate, and it went around the Ophel; and he raised it very high. And he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. 15 He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of Yahweh and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. 16 And he rebuilt the altar of Yahweh and sacrificed on it sacrifices of peace offerings and thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel. 17 Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to Yahweh their Elohim.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his Elohim, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, see, they are in the records of the kings of Israel. 19 His prayer also, and how He was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his unfaithfulness, and the places where he built high places and set up the Asherah poles and the carved images before he humbled himself, see, they are written in the records of the seers. 20 And Manasseh lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And Amon his son reigned in his place.
Amon king of Judah
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22 And he did evil in the sight of Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them. 23 And he did not humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon made his guilt ever greater. 24 And his servants conspired against him and killed him in his own house. 25 But the people of the land struck down all who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
Notes
- 33:6 Kings says that Manasseh made "his son" pass through the fire (2 Kings 21:6); Chronicles has "his sons" and names the place, the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, as it did for Ahaz (28:3; see the note on 2 Kings 23:10). It also adds that he "practiced sorcery" (kishef), another of the practices the Torah forbids in Deuteronomy 18:10.
- 33:7 Where Kings has "the carved image of Asherah" (2 Kings 21:7), Chronicles calls it "the carved image of the idol" (semel), a rare word that the Torah uses for any "figure" made into an image (Deuteronomy 4:16). Ezekiel later saw "the image (semel) of jealousy" at the entrance of the house of Yahweh (Ezekiel 8:3, 5), and many think of an object like this one.
- 33:11 Only Chronicles tells of Manasseh's captivity. "With hooks" (bachochim, literally "with thorns") is uncertain; an Assyrian stela of Esarhaddon shows captives held by ropes fastened to rings through their lips, and many read the verse in that light. Babylon was then under Assyrian rule, and some scholars connect the event with Babylon's revolt against Ashurbanipal (652-648 BC), but no Assyrian record mentions it; the inscriptions that name Manasseh as a vassal are noted at 2 Kings 21:1.
- 33:13 Manasseh did what Yahweh had asked of His people when the house was dedicated: "if My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray" (7:14). In his distress he humbled himself and prayed, and Yahweh heard him; vayye'ater lo means that He let Himself be moved by his entreaty. The king who had filled the house with idols came to confess what the people cried at Mount Carmel: "Yahweh, He is the Elohim!" (1 Kings 18:39). Kings does not tell of this, and it says that the judgment his sins brought on Judah still stood (2 Kings 23:26; see the note on 2 Kings 21:18).
- 33:19 Manasseh's prayer is named twice as written in other records (verses 18-19), but its words are not given here. A short "Prayer of Manasseh" is known in Greek and Syriac: it is first quoted in full in a third-century Christian church order (the Didascalia), it appears among the Bible manuscripts first in the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus, among songs placed after the Psalms, and many Bibles print it among the Apocrypha; a different Hebrew prayer with a similar title is among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q381). Neither is part of the Hebrew Scriptures, and neither can be shown to be the prayer meant here. "The seers" translates chozay; some read it as a name, "Hozai."
- 33:23 Chronicles sets father and son side by side with the same verb, kana, "humble oneself": Manasseh, the worst of the kings, humbled himself and was heard; Amon did not, and his reign lasted two years.