Study Desk

Twelve years old, was Manasseh when he began to reign, - and, fifty-five years, reigned he in Jerusalem.

And he did the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh,-according to the abominable ways of the nations, whom Yahweh dispossessed from before the sons of Israel.

And he again built the high places, which Hezekiah his father had thrown down, - and set up altars to the Baalim, and made Sacred Stems, and bowed in prostration unto all the army of the heavens, and served them;

and built altars in the house of Yahweh, - as to which Yahweh had said, In Jerusalem, shall be my Name, unto times age-abiding.

Yea he built altars unto all the army of the heavens, - in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

And, he, caused his sons to pass through the fire, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and practised hidden arts and used divination, and practised sorcery, and appointed a necromancer, and a wizard, - he exceeded in doing the thing that was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger;

and he set a resemblance-image which he had made, - in the house of God, as to which God had said unto David, and unto 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, unto times age-abiding.

So will I not again remove the foot of Israel away from the soil which I appointed for their fathers. Only they must observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the regulations, by the hand of Moses.

And so Manasseh led astray Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, - to commit wickedness beyond the nations which Yahweh had destroyed from before the sons of Israel.

And Yahweh spake unto Manasseh and unto his people, but they did not give ear.

So Yahweh brought in upon them, the captains of the army that belonged to the king of Assyria, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, - and bound him captive with a pair of bronze fetters, and took him away to Babylon.

But, in his distress, he appeased the face of Yahweh his God, - and humbled himself greatly, before the God of his fathers;

and, when he prayed unto him, then was he entreated of him, and hearkened unto his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem, unto his own kingdom, and so Manasseh came to know, that, Yahweh, is God.

And, after this, he built an outer wall to the city of David on the west of the Gihon in the ravine, even to the entering in through the fish-gate, and went round to Ophel, and carried it up very high, - and put captains of valour in all the fortified cities, throughout Judah.

And he removed the gods of the foreigner and the image, out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, - and he cast them forth outside the city.

And he built the altar of Yahweh, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings, and thanksgiving sacrifices,-and gave word to Judah to serve Yahweh, God of Israel.

Howbeit, still were, the people, sacrificing in the high places, - only unto Yahweh their God.

But, the rest of the story of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the story of the seers who spake unto him in the name of Yahweh God of Israel, there they are, in the story of the kings of Israel:

both his prayer and how God was entreated of him - and all his sin and his treacherous act, and the sites whereon he built high places, and set up the Sacred Stems and the images, before he humbled himself, there they are, written in the story of the seers.

And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the garden off his own house, - and Amon his son reigned in his stead.