King Manasseh of Judah

King Hezekiah who married, Hephzibah, the daughter of the prophet Isaiah, learned through prophecy that his sons would not follow in his righteous footsteps. King Hezekiah died in 687 BCE and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king of Judah, reigning until 643 BCE.

While King Hezekiah had purified religious observance, King Manasseh rebuilt the idolatrous temples and altars that his father had destroyed.

2 Kings 21:1-3

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem… He did what was displeasing to the L-RD… He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal and made a sacred post…

The Esarhaddon Prism B, a hexagonal, clay prism on display in the British Museum, mentions King Manasseh, in a list of kings that Esarhaddon, summoned to retrieve building materials for his palace at Nineveh. Esarhaddon was the son of the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib.

‍“And I (Esarhaddon) summoned the kings… Ba’lu, king of Tyre, Manasseh, king of Judah… I sent orders to all of them for large beams…everything that was needed for my palace…”