done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were
before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: therefore
thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I bring such evil
upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears
shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria,
and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a
man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will
cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand
of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all
their enemies; because they have done that which is evil in my sight,
and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth
out of Egypt, even unto this day.'"

Moreover Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err,
so that they did evil more than did {319} the nations, whom the Lord
destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spoke to
Manasseh, and to his people: but they gave no heed. Wherefore the Lord
brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who
took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him
to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he besought the Lord his God,
and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And he
prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him, and heard his
supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.

(God forgave his sin, and he went back to his kingdom to serve him
all the rest of his life.)

Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the
west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish
gate; and he compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great
height: and he put valiant captains in all the fenced cities of Judah.
And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of
the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the
house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
And he built up the altar of the Lord, and offered thereon sacrifices
of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve
the Lord, the God of Israel. Nevertheless the people sacrificed still
in the high places, but only unto the Lord their God. So Manasseh died
and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his
stead.

{320}

THE