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Then he prayed to Him, and He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and returned him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

And he set up the altar of Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he said for Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to Yahweh their God.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, even his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are among the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

His prayer also and how God was entreated by him, and all his sin, his unfaithfulness, and the sites on which he built high places and erected the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the chronicles of the Hozai.

Now in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the graven images, and the molten images.

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.

And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And she said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Say to the man who sent you to Me,

But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "Regarding the words which you have heard,

because your heart was soft and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you," declares Yahweh.

Moreover, he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand with him. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel to serve Yahweh their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn away from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

He also said to the Levites who provided understanding to all Israel and who were holy to Yahweh, "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; it will be a burden on your shoulders no longer. Now serve Yahweh your God and His people Israel.

His officials also contributed a freewill offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the officers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 from the flocks and 300 bulls.

But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, O King of Judah? I am not coming against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has said for me to hurry. Stop for your own sake from interfering with God who is with me, so that He will not bring you to ruin."

However, Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to make war with him; nor did he listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to make war on the plain of Megiddo.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God.

And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke from the mouth of Yahweh.

He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.