21 Ma·nasʹseh+ was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem.+ His mother’s name was Hephʹzi·bah.

3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hez·e·kiʹah had destroyed,+ and he set up altars to Baʹal and made a sacred pole,*+ just as Aʹhab the king of Israel had done.+ And he bowed down to all the army of the heavens and served them.+

6 And he made his own son pass through the fire; he practiced magic, looked for omens,+ and appointed spirit mediums and fortune-tellers.+ He did on a grand scale what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, to offend him.

3 Moreover, he made sacrificial smoke in the Valley of the Son of Hinʹnom* and burned up his sons in the fire,+ following the detestable practices of the nations+ that Jehovah had driven out from before the Israelites.