1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzi-bah.
2. But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, following the abominations of the nations that Adonai had dispossessed before Bnei-Yisrael.
3. For he rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshipped them.
4. He even built altars in Adonai’s House, where Adonai had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.”
5. He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of Adonai.
6. He also made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in Adonai’s eyes to provoke Him.
7. Then he set up the carved image of Asherah that he made in the House about which Adonai had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever.
8. No longer will I cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land which I gave their fathers—if only they will keep doing all I have commanded them and the whole Torah that My servant Moses commanded them.”
9. But they did not listen, so Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations that Adonai had destroyed before Bnei-Yisrael.