2 Kings 21:7
And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
Manasseh's placing of a carved Asherah image inside the temple itself was a daring repudiation of the statutes recorded by Moses. It set aside in particular the statutes of the book of the covenant in Deuteronomy. Those very statutes, when observed, had made the reign of his father Hezekiah prosperous. The act therefore marked a deliberate break with the law that had brought blessing to the kingdom just before him.
During Manasseh's reign the temple copy of the book of the law was lost through careless neglect. For many years afterward the people generally were deprived of its instruction.