מלכים ב, פרק כ״א, פסוק ב׳

Manasseh, the king of Judah, begins a period of severe spiritual decline. He starts by copying the corrupt practices of the Canaanite nations, the very people whom God had previously driven out of the land [מצודת ציון].

His descent into wrongdoing does not happen all at once. Instead, his initial actions represent the first step on a ladder of increasingly worse sins. At the beginning of his rule, the king commits evil privately. These early actions are personal offenses, kept strictly to himself. However, this private wrongdoing sets the stage for a much steeper fall. Over time, his behavior worsens as he moves from committing personal sins to causing the general public to sin, eventually leading to open and public idol worship [מלבי״ם].