A reading from the book of Second Chronicles.

Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem,

and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations

whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down,

and he erected altars to the bales, and made Ashuroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven,

and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said,

In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two

courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his sons as an offering in the valley of the son

of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens

and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the

Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of the idol that he had made, he set in the house of God, of which God

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.

And I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your

fathers. If only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law,

the statutes, and the rules given through Moses. Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem

astray to do more evil than the nations

whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

The Lord spoke to Manasa and to his people, but they paid no attention.

Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria,

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