1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 He did what the Lord said was wrong. He did the hateful things the other nations had done—the nations that the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of the Israelites.
3 Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, had destroyed the places where gods were worshiped, but Manasseh rebuilt them. He built altars for Baal, and he made an Asherah idol as Ahab king of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped all the stars of the sky and served them.
4 The Lord had said about the Temple, “I will be worshiped in Jerusalem,” but Manasseh built altars in the Temple of the Lord.
5 He built altars to worship the stars in the two courtyards of the Temple of the Lord.