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2 Chronicles 33

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2 Chronicles 33 Overview

Manasseh becomes king at twelve and reverses Hezekiah’s reforms. He rebuilds high places, worships Baal and the host of heaven, practices occult arts, sets an idol in God’s house, and causes Judah to do worse than the nations dispossessed from Canaan. After he refuses warning, Assyrian commanders capture him with hooks and take him to Babylon. In affliction he humbles himself greatly and prays; God brings him back to Jerusalem. Manasseh then removes idols, repairs the altar, and commands Judah to serve the LORD. His son Amon later returns to wickedness, refuses to humble himself, and is assassinated.

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Before you read 2 Chronicles 33

Coming from

Chapter 32 ended Hezekiah’s reign after extraordinary deliverance, later pride, and humility.

In this chapter

Manasseh plunges Judah into severe apostasy, but Chronicles adds a striking account of his personal humiliation, prayer, restoration, and reform after captivity.

Leads into

Chapter 34 begins Josiah’s reign and shows a young king seeking God, purging idolatry, and later rediscovering the book of the law.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Second Kings emphasizes that Manasseh’s sins helped make national judgment unavoidable; Chronicles does not contradict that by recording his later repentance. A king can genuinely turn from his own wickedness late in life while consequences of decades of corruption remain embedded in the nation. His story is therefore about both remarkable mercy and the lasting damage of leadership.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Manasseh’s early reign demonstrates how far covenant apostasy can descend.

Truth 2

God’s warnings can be ignored until severe temporal judgment forces a ruler to confront his condition.

Truth 3

Manasseh’s humility is followed by concrete efforts to remove idols and restore worship.

Truth 4

Personal restoration does not automatically erase the national consequences of earlier evil.

Truth 5

Amon shows that a father’s late repentance does not guarantee a son’s faithfulness.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Second Kings 21 records Manasseh’s wickedness and the national judgment attached to it but does not include the captivity-and-restoration episode.

Connection 2

Jeremiah 15:4 later names Manasseh in explaining Judah’s coming judgment.

Connection 3

Deuteronomy 18 condemns the occult practices Manasseh adopts.

Connection 4

Luke 15 provides a different covenant setting but shares the broader biblical theme that a deeply wayward person can humble himself and turn back rather than being beyond mercy.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not use Manasseh’s late reform to minimize the horrific evil of his earlier reign.

Keep this clear 2

Do not claim his personal repentance canceled all temporal or national consequences; later Scripture explicitly continues to connect Judah’s judgment with his sins.

Keep this clear 3

The chapter does not make captivity or suffering a saving requirement; it describes the circumstances in which Manasseh humbled himself.

Keep this clear 4

Occult practices are condemned, not presented as neutral spiritual techniques.

Read 2 Chronicles 33 watching for…

The extent of Manasseh’s reversal of Hezekiah’s reforms.

The warnings he initially refuses.

His captivity and response in affliction.

The changes he makes after returning.

What consequences appear to remain despite his reform.

The contrast between Manasseh’s humility and Amon’s refusal to humble himself.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-9Manasseh fills Judah and the temple with idolatry and evil 10-13Manasseh is taken to Babylon, humbles himself, prays, and is restored 14-17Manasseh strengthens Jerusalem and removes false gods, though some high places remain 18-20Manasseh’s prayer, acts, and death are recorded 21-25Amon does evil, is killed by his servants, and the people punish the conspirators

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:

But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.

And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:

Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.

So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken.

Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

And 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.

Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war 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 repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the LORD their God only.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel.

His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.

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

Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned two years in Jerusalem.

But he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them;

And humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.

And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.

But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

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2 Chronicles 33:2

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