1. MANASSEH WAS twelve years old when he began his fifty-five-year [wicked] reign in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.
2. He [Hezekiah's son] did evil in the sight of the Lord, after the [idolatrous] practices of the [heathen] nations whom the Lord cast out before the Israelites.
3. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the [starry] hosts of the heavens and served them!
4. And he built [heathen] altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put My Name [and the pledge of My presence].
5. And he [good Hezekiah's son] built altars for all the hosts of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the Lord!
6. And he made his son pass through the fire and burned him as an offering [to Molech]; he practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and wizards! He did much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
7. He made a graven image of [the goddess] Asherah and set it 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, will I put My Name [and the pledge of My presence] forever;
8. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.