The Divided Kingdom

And when he was in tribulation, he prayed to the Lord his God, and humbled him selfe greatly before the God of his fathers,

And prayed vnto him: and God was entreated of him, and heard his prayer, and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his kingdome: then Manasseh knewe that the Lord was God.

Nowe after this he built a wall without the citie of Dauid, on the Westside of Gihon in the valley, euen at the entrie of the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it very hie, and put captaines of warre in all the strong cities of Iudah.

And he tooke away the strange gods and the image 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 Ierusalem, and cast them out of the citie.

Also he prepared the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings, and of thankes, and commanded Iudah to serue the Lord God of Israel.

Neuerthelesse the people did sacrifice stil in the hie places, but vnto the Lord their God.

Concerning the rest of the actes of Manasseh, and his prayer vnto his God, and the words of the Seers, that spake to him in ye Name of the Lord God of Israel, beholde, they are written in the booke of the Kings of Israel.

And his prayer and how God was intreated of him, and all his sinne, and his trespasse, and the places wherein he built hie places, and set groues and images (before he was humbled) behold, they are written in the booke of the Seers.

So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his owne house: and Amon his sonne reigned in his stead.

Amon was two and twentie yeere olde, when he began to reigne, and reigned two yeere in Ierusalem.

But he did euill in the sight of the Lord, as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed to all the images, which Manasseh his father had made, and serued them,

And he humbled not him selfe before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himselfe: but this Amon trespassed more and more.

And his seruants conspired against him, and slewe him in his owne house.

But the people of the land slewe all them that had conspired against King Amon: and the people of the land made Iosiah his sonne King in his steade.

Iosiah was eight yeere olde when hee began to reigne, and he reigned in Ierusalem one and thirtie yeere.

And he did vprightly in the sight of ye Lord, and walked in the wayes of Dauid his father, and bowed neither to the right hand nor to the left.

And in the eight yeere of his reigne (when he was yet a childe) he began to seeke after the God of Dauid his father: and in the twelft yeere he began to purge Iudah, and Ierusalem from the hie places, and the groues, and the carued images, and molten images:

And they brake downe in his sight the altars of Baalim, and hee caused to cut downe the images that were on hie vpon them: he brake also the groues, and the carued images, and the molten images, and stampt them to pouder, and strowed it vpon the graues of them that had sacrificed vnto them.

Also he burnt the bones of the Priests vpon their altars, and purged Iudah and Ierusalem.

And in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, euen vnto Naphtali, with their maules they brake all round about.

And when he had destroyed the altars and the groues, and had broken and stamped to pouder the images, and had cut downe all the idoles throughout all the land of Israel, hee returned to Ierusalem.

Then in the eightenth yere of his reigne, when hee had purged the lande and the Temple, he sent Shaphan the sonne of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the gouernour of the citie, and Ioah the sonne of Ioahaz the recorder, to repaire the house of the Lord his God.

And when they came to Hilkiah the hie Priest, they deliuered ye money that was brought into the house of God, which the Leuites that kept the doore, had gathered at the hand of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and of all the residue of Israel, and of all Iudah and Beniamin, and of the inhabitantes of Ierusalem.

And they put it in the hands of them that should doe the worke and had the ouersight in the house of the Lord: and they gaue it to the workemen that wrought in the house of ye Lord, to repaire and amend the house.

Euen to the workemen and to the builders gaue they it, to bye hewed stone and timber for couples and for beames of the houses, which the Kings of Iudah had destroyed.