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Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
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But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
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For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
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He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, "In Jerusalem shall My name be forever."
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And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
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Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
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He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God 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;
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and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers--only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses."
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So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
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And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen.
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Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.
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Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
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and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.