2 CHROICLES 33 COMMETARY

EDITED BY GLE PEASE

Manasseh King of Judah

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became

king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

BARES, "Compare references and notes. The author of Chronicles differs chiefly
from Kings in additions (see the 2Ki_21:17 note). The central part of this chapter (2Ch_
33:11-19) is almost entirely new matter.

CLARKE, "Manasseh was twelve years old - We do not find that he had any
godly director; his youth was therefore the more easily seduced. But surely he had a
pious education; how then could the principles of it be so soon eradicated?

GILL 1-9, "Manasseh was twelve years old,.... From hence to the end of 2Ch_33:9
the same things are recorded, almost word for word, as in 2Ki_21:1, see the notes there.
See Gill on 2Ki_21:1.

HERY 1-10, "We have here an account of the great wickedness of Manasseh. It is
the same almost word for word with that which we had 2Ki_21:1-9, and took a
melancholy view of. It is no such pleasing subject that we should delight to dwell upon it
again. This foolish young prince, in contradiction to the good example and good
education his father gave him, abandoned himself to all impiety, transcribed the
abominations of the heathen (2Ch_33:2), ruined the established religion, unravelled his
father's glorious reformation (2Ch_33:3), profaned the house of God with his idolatry
(2Ch_33:4, 2Ch_33:5), dedicated his children to Moloch, and made the devil's lying
oracles his guides and his counsellors, 2Ch_33:6. In contempt of the choice God had
made of Sion to be his rest for ever and Israel to be his covenant-people (2Ch_33:8), and
the fair terms he stood upon with God, he embraced other gods, profaned God's chosen
temple, and debauched his chosen people. He made them to err, and do worse than the
heathen (2Ch_33:9); for, if the unclean spirit returns, he brings with him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself. That which aggravated the sin of Manasseh was that
God spoke to him and his people by the prophets, but they would not hearken, 2Ch_
33:10. We may here admire the grace of God in speaking to them, and their obstinacy in
turning a deaf ear to him, that either their badness did not quite turn away his goodness,
but still he waited to be gracious, or that his goodness did not turn them from their
badness, but still they hated to be reformed. Now from this let us learn, 1. That it is no
new thing, but a very sad thing, for the children of godly parents to turn aside from that
good way of God in which they have been trained. Parents may give many good things to
their children, but they cannot give them grace. 2. Corruptions in worship are such
diseases of the church as it is very apt to relapse into again even when they seem to be
cured. 3. The god of this world has strangely blinded men's minds, and has a wonderful
power over those that are led captive by him; else he could not draw them from God,
their best friend, to depend upon their sworn enemy.

JAMISO, "2Ch_33:1-10. Manasseh’s wicked reign.

Manasseh ... did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord — (See on 2Ki_
21:1-16).

K&D 1-9, "The reign of Manasseh; cf. 2 Kings 21:1-18. - The characteristics of this
king's reign, and of the idolatry which he again introduced, and increased in a measure
surpassing all his predecessors (2Ch_33:1-9), agrees almost verbally with 2Ki_21:1-9.
Here and there an expression is rhetorically generalized and intensified, e.g., by the
plurals ‫ ַל ְ ָע ִלים‬and ‫( ֲא ֵשׁרּות‬2Ch_33:3) instead of the sing. ‫ ַל ַ ַעל‬and ‫( ֲא ֵשׁ ָרה‬Kings), and ‫ָנָ ין‬
(2Ch_33:6) instead of ‫( ְנּו‬see on 2Ch_28:3); by the addition of ‫ וְ ִכ ֵף‬to ‫עּונֵ ן וְ נִ ֵחשׁ‬, and of
the name the Vale of Hinnom, 2Ch_33:6 (see on Jos_15:18, ‫ ֵ י‬for ‫ ;)ֵ יא‬by heaping up
words for the law and its commandments (2Ch_33:8); and other small deviations, of
which ‫( ֶ ֶסל ַה ֶ ֶמל‬2Ch_33:7) instead of ‫( ֶ ֶסל ָה ֲא ֵשׁ ָרה‬Kings) is the most important. The
word ‫ס ֶמל‬,
ֶ sculpture or statue, is derived from Deu_4:16, but has perhaps been taken by
the author of the Chronicle from Eze_8:3, where ‫ ֶס ֶמל‬probably denotes the statue of
Asherah. The form ‫ ֵעילּום‬for ‫( עּולם‬2Ch_33:7) is not elsewhere met with.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:1. Manasseh was twelve years old, &c. — This and the
following verses, to 2 Chronicles 33:11, are taken out of 2 Kings 21:1, &c., where the
reader will find them explained.

COFFMA, "THE WICKED REIGS OF MAASSEH AD ATO

XIII. MAASSEH (687-642 B.C.)

All of the material in this chapter is parallel with Second Kings 21, except 2
Chronicles 33:11-17 which relate the conversion of Manasseh. Our comments on
this chapter are found in the parallel passages in our commentary on Second Kings.
Here we shall focus attention upon the material peculiar to this chapter.
The date for Manasseh's reign given above indicates that a part of the fifty-five year
reign mentioned in the text was probably as a co-regency under his father. We have
often noted the difficulties in the chronology of Israel's kings.

ELLICOTT, "THE REIGS OF MAASSEH AD AMO.

(1-20) The history of Manasseh. Duration and character of the reign. Restoration of
idolatry (2 Chronicles 33:1-10). This section is closely parallel with 2 Kings 21:1-10.
2 Chronicles 33:1-2; 2 Chronicles 33:5 are word for word the same in both.

PARKER, "Hezekiah"s Successors

2 Chronicles 33

HOW will the history now run? Surely it has reached a level from which it cannot
drop. We shall hear no more of bad kings of Judah. So we should say, but this
chapter corrects our impressions:—

"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" ( 2 Chronicles 33:1-2).

"For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down,
and he reared up altars for Baalim [the plural again], 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" ( 2 Chronicles 33:3-5).

PULPIT, "The first twenty verses of this chapter are taken up with the account of
Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah and Hephzibah, who, beginning to reign at the early
age of twelve years, reigned in all fifty-five years; the remaining five verses with the
account of the reign of his son Amon. The parallel to this chapter is 2 Kings 21:1-26.
The repeated references in this chapter to Manasseh's neglect, and to his people's
neglect, after his example, of injunction, promise, and threat of the Word of the
Lord and of the Law, make it a prominent instance of the spirit of the compiler, and
an indication of one of the main objects he had in view, and kept in view in writing
these chronicles.

2 Chronicles 33:1

The parallel adds the name of Manasseh's mother, the well-omened name
Hephzibah, "My delight is in her" (Isaiah 62:4).

EBC, "MAASSEH: REPETACE AD FORGIVEESS

2 Chronicles 33:1-25

In telling the melancholy story of the wickedness of Manasseh in the first period of
his reign, the chronicler reproduces the book of Kings, with one or two omissions
and other slight alterations. He omits the name of Manasseh’s mother; she was
called Hephzi-bah-"My pleasure is in her." In any case, when the son of a godly
father turns out badly, and nothing is known about the mother, uncharitable people
might credit her with his wickedness. But the chronicler’s readers were familiar
with the great influence of the queen-mother in Oriental states. When they read that
the son of Hezekiah came to the throne at the age of twelve and afterwards gave
himself up to every form of idolatry, they would naturally ascribe his departure
from his father’s ways to the suggestions of his mother. The chronicler is not willing
that the pious Hezekiah should lie under the imputation of having taken delight in
an ungodly woman, and so her name is omitted.

The contents of 2 Kings 21:10-16 are also omitted; they consist of a prophetic
utterance and further particulars as to the sins of Manasseh; they are virtually
replaced by the additional information in Chronicles.

From the point of view of the chronicler, the history of Manasseh in the book of
Kings was far from satisfactory. The earlier writer had not only failed to provide
materials from which a suitable moral could be deduced, but he had also told the
story so that undesirable conclusions might be drawn. Manasseh sinned more
wickedly than any other king of Judah: Ahaz merely polluted and closed the
Temple, but Manasseh "built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of
the Temple," and set up in it an idol. And yet in the earlier narrative this most
wicked king escaped without any personal punishment at all. Moreover, length of
days was one of the rewards which Jehovah was wont to bestow upon the righteous;
but while Ahaz was cut off at thirty-six, in the prime of manhood, Manasseh
survived to the mature age of sixty-seven, and reigned fifty-five years.

However, the history reached the chronicler in a more satisfactory form. Manasseh
was duly punished, and his long reign fully accounted for. When, in spite of Divine
warning, Manasseh and his people persisted in their sin, Jehovah sent against them
"the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh in chains, and
bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon."

The Assyrian invasion referred to here is partially confirmed by the fact that the
name of Manasseh occurs amongst the tributaries of Esarhaddon and his successor,
Assurbanipal. The mention of Babylon as his place of captivity rather than ineveh
may be accounted for by supposing that Manasseh was taken prisoner in the reign
of Esarhaddon. This king of Assyria rebuilt Babylon, and spent much of his time
there. He is said to have been of a kindly disposition, and to have exercised towards
other royal captives the same clemency which he extended to Manasseh. For the
Jewish king’s misfortunes led him to repentance: "When he was in trouble, he
besought Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his
fathers, and prayed unto him." Amongst the Greek Apocrypha is found a "Prayer
of Manasses," doubtless intended by its author to represent the prayer referred to in
Chronicles. In it Manasseh celebrates the Divine glory, confesses his great
wickedness, and asks that his penitence may be accepted and that he may obtain
deliverance.

If these were the terms of Manasseh’s prayers, they were heard and answered; and
the captive king returned to Jerusalem a devout worshipper and faithful servant of
Jehovah. He at once set to work to undo the evil he had wrought in the former
period of his reign. He took away the idol and the heathen altars from the Temple,
restored the altar of Jehovah, and reestablished the Temple services. In earlier days
he had led the people into idolatry; now he commanded them to serve Jehovah, and
the people obediently followed the king’s example. Apparently he found it
impracticable to interfere with the high places; but they were so far purified from
corruption that, though the people still sacrificed at these illegal sanctuaries, they
worshipped exclusively Jehovah, the God of Israel.

Like most of the pious kings, his prosperity was partly shown by his extensive
building operations. Following in the footsteps of Jotham, he strengthened or
repaired the fortifications of Jerusalem, especially about Ophel. He further
provided for the safety of his dominions by placing captains, and doubtless also
garrisons, in the fenced cities of Judah. The interest taken by the Jews of the second
Temple in the history of Manasseh is shown by the fact that the chronicler is able to
mention, not only the "Acts of the Kings of Israel," but a second authority: "The
History of the Seers." The imagination of the Targumists and other later writers
embellished the history of Manasseh’s captivity and release with many striking and
romantic circumstances.

The life of Manasseh practically completes the chronicler’s series of object-lessons in

the doctrine of retribution; the history of the later kings only provides illustrations
similar to those already given. These object-lessons are closely connected with the
teaching of Ezekiel. In dealing with the question of heredity in guilt, the prophet is
led to set forth the character and fortunes of four different classes of men. First
[Ezekiel 18:20] we have two simple cases: the righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. These have been
respectively illustrated by the prosperity of Solomon and Jotham and the
misfortunes of Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Ahaz. Again, departing somewhat
from the order of Ezekiel-"When the righteous turneth away from his
righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations
of the wicked man, shall he live? one of his righteous deeds that he hath done shall
be remembered; in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath
sinned he shall die"-here we have the principle that in Chronicles governs the
Divine dealings with the kings who began to reign well and then fell away into sin:
Asa, Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah.

We reached this point in our discussion of the doctrine of retribution in connection

with Asa. So far the lessons taught were salutary: they might deter from sin; but
they were gloomy and depressing: they gave little encouragement to hope for success
in the struggle after righteousness, and suggested that few would escape terrible
penalties of failure. David and Solomon formed a class by themselves; an ordinary
man could not aspire to their almost supernatural virtue. In his later history the
chronicler is chiefly bent on illustrating the frailty of man and the wrath of God.
The ew Testament teaches a similar lesson when it asks, "If the righteous is
scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" [1 Peter 4:18] But in
Chronicles not even the righteous is saved. Again and again we are told at a king’s
accession that he "did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah"; and
yet before the reign closes he forfeits the Divine favor, and at last dies ruined and
disgraced.

But this somber picture is relieved by occasional gleams of light. Ezekiel furnishes a
fourth type of religious experience: "If the wicked turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall
live; he shall not die. one of his transgressions that he hath committed shall be
remembered against him; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I
any pleasure in the death of the wicked, saith the Lord Jehovah, and not rather that
he should return from his way and live?" [Ezekiel 18:21-23] The one striking and
complete example of this principle is the history of Manasseh. It is true that
Rehoboam also repented, but the chronicler does not make it clear that his
repentance was permanent. Manasseh is unique alike in extreme wickedness, sincere
penitence, and thorough reformation. The reformation of Julius Caesar or of our
Henry V, or, to take a different class of instance, the conversion of St. Paul, was
nothing compared to the conversion of Manasseh. It was as though Herod the Great
or Caesar Borgia had been checked midway in a career of cruelty and vice, and had
thenceforward lived pure and holy lives, glorifying God by ministering to their
fellow-men. Such a repentance gives us hope for the most abandoned. In the
forgiveness of Manasseh the penitent sinner receives assurance that God will forgive
even the most guilty. The account of his closing years shows that even a career of
desperate wickedness in the past need not hinder the penitent from rendering
acceptable service to God and ending his life in the enjoyment of Divine favor and
blessing. Manasseh becomes in the Old Testament what the Prodigal Son is in the
ew: the one great symbol of the possibilities of human nature and the infinite
mercy of God.

The chronicler’s theology is as simple and straightforward as that of Ezekiel.

Manasseh repents, submits himself, and is forgiven. His captivity apparently had
expiated his guilt, as far as expiation was necessary. either prophet nor chronicler
was conscious of the moral difficulties that have been found in so simple a plan of
salvation. The problems of an objective atonement had not yet risen above their
horizon.

These incidents afford another illustration of the necessary limitations of ritual. In

the great crisis of Manasseh’s spiritual life, the Levitical ordinances played no part;
they moved on a lower level, and ministered to less urgent needs. Probably the
worship of Jehovah was still suspended during Manasseh’s captivity; none the less
Manasseh was able to make his peace with God. Even if they were punctually
observed, of what use were services at the Temple in Jerusalem to a penitent sinner
at Babylon? When Manasseh returned to Jerusalem, he restored the Temple
worship, and offered sacrifices of peace-offerings and of thanksgiving; nothing is
said about sin-offerings. His sacrifices were not the condition of his pardon, but the
seal and token of a reconciliation already effected. The experience of Manasseh
anticipated that of the Jews of the Captivity: he discovered the possibility of
fellowship with Jehovah, far away from the Holy Land, without temple, priest, or
sacrifice. The chronicler, perhaps unconsciously, already foreshadows the coming of
the hour when men should worship the Father neither in the holy mountain of
Samaria nor yet in Jerusalem.

Before relating the outward acts which testified the sincerity of Manasseh’s
repentance, the chronicler devotes a single sentence to the happy influence of
forgiveness and deliverance upon Manasseh himself. When his prayer had been
heard, and his exile was at an end, then Manasseh knew and acknowledged that
Jehovah was God. Men first begin to know God when they have been forgiven. The
alienated and disobedient, if they think of Him at all, merely have glimpses of His
vengeance and try to persuade themselves that He is a stern Tyrant. By the penitent
not yet assured of the possibility of reconciliation God is chiefly thought of as a
righteous Judge. What did the Prodigal Son know about his father when he asked
for the portion of goods that fell to him or while he was wasting his substance in
riotous living? Even when he came to himself, he thought of the father’s house as a
place where there was bread enough and to spare; and he supposed that his father
might endure to see him living at home in permanent disgrace, on the footing of a
hired servant. When he reached home, after he had been met a great way off with
compassion and been welcomed with an embrace, he began for the first time to
understand his father’s character. So the knowledge of God’s love dawns upon the
soul in the blessed experience of forgiveness; and because love and forgiveness are
more strange and unearthly than rebuke and chastisement, the sinner is humbled by
pardon far more than by punishment; and his trembling submission to the righteous
Judge deepens into profounder reverence and awe for the God who can forgive, who
is superior to all vindictiveness, whose infinite resources enable Him to blot out the
guilt, to cancel the penalty, and annul the consequences of sin.

"There is forgiveness with Thee, That Thou mayest be feared."

The words that stand in the forefront of the Lord’s Prayer, "Hallowed be Thy
name," are virtually a petition that sinners may repent, and be converted, and
obtain forgiveness.

In seeking for a Christian parallel to the doctrine expounded by Ezekiel and

illustrated by Chronicles, we have to remember that the permanent elements in
primitive doctrine are often to be found by removing the limitations which
imperfect faith has imposed on the possibilities of human nature and Divine mercy.
We have already suggested that the chronicler’s somewhat rigid doctrine of
temporal rewards and punishments symbolizes the inevitable influence of conduct
on the development of character. The doctrine of God’s attitude towards
backsliding and repentance seems somewhat arbitrary as set forth by Ezekiel and
Chronicles. A man apparently is not to be judged by his whole life, but only by the
moral period that is closed by his death. If his last years be pious, his former
transgressions are forgotten; if his last years be evil, his righteous deeds are equally
forgotten. While we gratefully accept the forgiveness of sinners, such teaching as to
backsliders seems a little cynical; and though, by God’s grace and discipline, a man
may be led through and out of sin into righteousness, we are naturally suspicious of
a life of "righteous deeds" which towards its close lapses into gross and open sin.
"emo repente turpissimus fit." We are inclined to believe that the final lapse
reveals the true bias of the whole character. But the chronicler suggests more than
this: by his history of the almost uniform failure of the pious kings to persevere to
the end, he seems to teach that the piety of early and mature life is either unreal or
else is unable to survive as body and mind wear out. This doctrine has sometimes,
inconsiderately no doubt, been taught from Christian pulpits; and yet the truth of
which the doctrine is a misrepresentation supplies a correction of the former
principle that a life is to be judged by its close. Putting aside any question of positive
sin, a man’s closing years sometimes seem cold, narrow, and selfish when once he
was full of tender and considerate sympathy; and yet the man is no Asa or Amaziah
who has deserted the living God for idols of wood and stone. The man has not
changed, only our impression of him. Unconsciously we are influenced by the
contrast between his present state and the splendid energy and devotion or self-
sacrifice that marked his prime; we forget that inaction is his misfortune, and not
his fault; we overrate his ardor in the days when vigorous action was a delight for
its own sake; and we overlook the quiet heroism with which remnants of strength
are still utilized in the Lord’s service, and do not consider that moments of
fretfulness are due to decay and disease that at once increase the need of patience
and diminish the powers of endurance. Muscles and nerves slowly become less and
less efficient; they fail to carry to the soul full and clear reports of the outside world;
they are no longer satisfactory instruments by which the soul can express its feelings
or execute its will. We are less able than ever to estimate the inner life of such by
that which we see and hear. While we are thankful for the sweet serenity and loving
sympathy which often make the hoary head a crown of glory, we are also entitled to
judge some of God’s more militant children by their years of arduous service, and
not by their impatience of enforced inactivity.

If our author’s statement of these truths seem unsatisfactory, we must remember

that his lack of a doctrine of the future life placed him at a serious disadvantage. He
wished to exhibit a complete picture of God’s dealings with the characters of his
history, so that their lives should furnish exact illustrations of the working of sin
and righteousness. He was controlled and hampered by the idea that underlies many
discussions in the Old Testament: that God’s righteous judgment upon a man’s
actions is completely manifested during his earthly life. It may be possible to assert
an eternal providence; but conscience and heart have long since revolted against the
doctrine that God’s justice, to say nothing of His love, is declared by the misery of
lives that might have been innocent, if they had ever had the opportunity of
knowing what innocence meant. The chronicler worked on too small a scale for his
subject. The entire Divine economy of Him with whom a thousand years are as one
day cannot be even outlined for a single soul in the history of its earthly existence.
These narratives of Jewish kings are only imperfect symbols of the infinite
possibilities of the eternal providence. The moral of Chronicles is very much that of
the Greek sage, "Call no man happy till he is dead"; but since Christ has brought
life and immortality to light through the Gospel, we no longer pass final judgment
upon either the man or his happiness by what we know of his life here. The decisive
revelation of character, the final judgment upon conduct, the due adjustment of the
gifts and discipline of God, are deferred to a future life. When these are completed,
and the soul has attained to good or evil beyond all reversal, then we shall feel, with
Ezekiel and the chronicler, that there is no further need to remember either the
righteous deeds or the transgressions of earlier stages of its history.

GUZIK, "A. The reign of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah.

1. (2 Chronicles 33:1-2) A summary of the reign of Manasseh, a 55 year rule of evil.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years
in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the
abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of
Israel.

a. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king: This means that he was
born in the last fifteen years of Hezekiah’s life, the additional fifteen years that
Hezekiah prayed for (2 Kings 20:6). Those additional fifteen years brought Judah
one of its worst kings.

i. “Had this good king been able to foresee the wickedness of his unworthy son, he
would doubtless have no desire to recover from his sickness. Better by far die
childless than beget a son such as Manasseh proved to be.” (Knapp)

b. And he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: This was both a remarkably long
and a remarkably evil reign. A long career or longevity is not necessarily evidence of
the blessing and approval of God.

i. “He was a son of David, but he was the very reverse of that king, who was always
faithful in his loyalty to the one only God of Israel. David’s blood was in his veins,
but David’s ways were not in his heart. He was a wild, degenerate shoot of a noble
vine.” (Sprugeon)

c. According to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out
before: Manasseh imitated the sins of both the Canaanites and the Israelites of the
northern kingdom (2 Kings 16:3). Since God brought judgment on these groups for
their sin, casting them out of their land, then similar judgment against and
unrepentant Judah should be expected.
BI, "Manasseh was twelve years old.
Manasseh; or, the material and the moral in human life
There are two great mistakes prevalent amongst men, one is an over-estimation of the
secular, the other a depreciation of the spiritual. Man is one, and all his duties and
interests are concurrent and harmonious; the end of Christianity is to make men happy
body and soul, here and hereafter.
I. The elevation of the secular and the degradation of the spiritual. Here is a man at the
height of secular elevation. He is raised to a throne, called to sway his sceptre over a
people the most enlightened, and in a country the most fertile and lovely on the face of
the earth. In the person of this Manasseh, you have secular greatness in its highest
altitude and most attractive position. But in connection with this you have spiritual
degradation. Penetrate the gaudy trappings of royalty, look within, and what see you? A
low, wretched, infamous spirit, a spirit debased almost to the lowest point in morals.
1. Look at him socially. How acted he as a son? His father, Hezekiah, was a man of
undoubted piety—a monarch of distinguished worth. His sire was scarcely cold in his
grave, before the son commenced undoing in the kingdom all that his pious father
had for years endeavoured to accomplish. “He built up again the high place which
Hezekiah his father had destroyed,” etc. How did he act as a parent? Was he anxious
for the virtue and happiness of his children? No, “he caused his children to pass
through the fire of the son of Hinnom.”
2. Look at him religiously—dupe of the most stupid imposture. “He observed times
and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and
with wizards.”
3. Look at him politically ruining his country, provoking the indignation of heaven.”
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.” This
elevation of the secular, and the degradation of the spiritual, so manifest in the life of
this monarch, and so manifest, alas, in all times and lands, is not destitute of many
grave and startling suggestions. First: It shows the moral disorganisation of the
human world. This state of things can never be, according to the original plan of the
creation. A terrible convulsion has happened to the human world; a convulsion that
has thrown every part in disorder. “All the foundations of the earth are out of
course.” The social world is in a moral chaos. The Bible traces the cause, and
propounds the remedy of this terrible disorganisation. Secondly: It shows the
perverting capability of the soul. The greater the amount of worldly good a man
possesses, the stronger is the appeal of the Creator for his gratitude and devotion.
Moreover, the larger the amount of worldly wealth and power, the greater the
facilities as well as the obligations to a life of spiritual intelligence, holiness, and
piety. The perverting capability of the soul within us, may well fill us with
amazement and alarm. Thirdly: It shows the high probability of a judgment. Under
the government of a righteous monarch, will vice always have its banquets, its
purple, and its crown? Will the great Lord allow His stewards to misappropriate His
substance, and never call them to account?
II. The degradation of the secular, and the elevation of the spiritual. The judgment of
God, which must ever follow sin, at length overtook the wicked monarch. The Assyrian
army, under the direction of Esarhaddon, invaded the country, and carried all before it.
The miserable monarch quits his palace and his throne, flies in terror of his life, and
conceals himself in a thorn brake. Here he is discovered. He is bound in chains,
transported to Babylon, and there cast into prison. Here is secular degradation. First:
That man’s circumstances are no necessary hindrances to conversion. If the question
were asked, What circumstances are the most inimical to the cultivation of piety? I
should unhesitatingly answer—Adversity. I am well aware indeed that adversity, as in
the case before us, often succeeds in inducing religious thoughtfulness and penitence
when prosperity has failed. But, notwithstanding this, I cannot regard adversity itself as
the most suited to the cultivation of the religious character. Sufferings are inimical to
that grateful feeling and spiritual effort which religious culture requires. It is when the
system bounds with health, when Providence smiles on the path, that men are in the
best position to discipline themselves into a godly life. But here we find a man in the
most unfavourable circumstances—away from religions institutions, and friends, and
books, an ironbound exile in a pagan land—beginning to think of his ways, and directing
his feet into the paths of holiness. Such a case as this meets all the excuses which men
offer for their want of religion. It is often said, “Were we in such and such circumstances,
we would be religious.” The rich man says, “Were I in humble life, more free from the
anxieties, cares, responsibilities, and associations of my position, I would live a godly
life; whilst the poor, on the other hand, says, with far more reason, “Were my spirit not
pressed down by the crushing forces of poverty; had I sufficient of worldly goods to
remove me from all necessary anxiety, I would give my mind to religion, and serve my
God.” The man in the midst of excitement and bustle of commercial life, says, “Were I in
a more retired situation, in some moral region away from the eternal din of business—
away in quiet fields, and under clear skies, amidst the music of birds and brooks, I would
serve my Maker.” The fact, after all, is that circumstances are no necessary hindrances or
helps to a religious life. Secondly: That heaven’s mercy is greater than man’s iniquities.
III. The concurrent elevation both of the spiritual and the secular. The Almighty hears
his prayer. He is emancipated from his bondage, brought back to his own country, and
restored to the throne of Israel. There he is now with a true heart, in a noble position—a
real great man occupying a great office. This is a rare scene; and yet the only scene in
accordance with the real constitution of things and the will of God. It seems to me that if
man had remained in innocence, his outward position would always have been the
product and type of his inner soul. Manasseh’s restoration to the throne, and the work of
reformation to which he sets himself, suggests two subjects for thought. First: The
tendency of godliness to promote man’s secular elevation. The monarch comes back in
spirit to God, and God brings him back to his throne. As the material condition of men
depends upon their moral, improve the latter, and you improve the former. As the world
gets spiritually holier, it will get secularly happier. Secondly: The tendency of penitence
to make restitution. Concerning Manasseh it is thus written: “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,” etc. Here is restitution, and an earnest endeavour to undo
the mischief which he had wrought. Thus Zaceheus acted, and thus all true penitents
have ever acted and will ever act. True penitence has a restitutionary instinct. But how
little, alas! of the mischief done can be undone! (Homilist.)
2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the
detestable practices of the nations the Lord had
driven out before the Israelites.

3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah

had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals
and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all
the starry hosts and worshiped them.

CLARKE, "Altars for Baalim - The Sun and Moon. And made groves, ‫אשרות‬
Asheroth, Astarte, Venus; the host of heaven, all the Planets and Stars. These were the
general objects of his devotion.

ELLICOTT, "(3) For.—And. (See margin.)

Broken down.—2 Chronicles 23:17; 2 Chronicles 31:1 (“threw down”). Kings has
“destroyed” (‘ibbad).

Baalim.—The Baals—i.e., the different images of Baal. Kings has the singular, both
here and in the next word, “groves,” or rather Asheras (‘Ashçrôth; Kings,
‘Ashçrah). The latter plural is rhetorical: Manasseh made such things as Asheras.
(Comp. also the use of the plural in 2 Chronicles 32:31, and the passages there
referred to.) Kings adds: “as Ahab king of Israel made.”

GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 33:3-9) The specific sins of Manasseh.

For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he
raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the
host of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of
which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” And he built
altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. Also he
caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he
practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and
spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. He
even 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 out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; and I
will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for
your fathers; only if they are careful 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 seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more
evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

a. He rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down: Manasseh
opposed the reforms of his father Hezekiah and he brought Judah back into terrible
idolatry.

i. This shows us that repentance and reform and revival are not permanent standing
conditions. What is accomplished at one time can be opposed and turned back at
another time.

b. He raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images: Manasseh did not
want to imitate his godly father. Instead, he imitated one of the very worst kings of
Israel: Ahab. He embraced the same state-sponsored worship of Baal and Asherah
(honored with a wooden image) that marked the reign of Ahab.

c. He also built altars in the house of the LORD: It was bad enough for Manasseh to
allow this idol worship into Judah. Worse, he corrupted the worship of the true God
at the temple, and made the temple a place of idol altars, including those dedicated
to his cult of astrological worship (he built altars for all the host of heaven).

d. He built altars for the host of heaven in the courts of the house of the LORD:
Manasseh did not only bring back old forms of idolatry; he also brought new forms
of idolatry to Judah. At this time the Babylonian Empire was rising in influence,
and they had a special attraction to astrological worship. Manasseh probably
imitated this.

i. “The king’s apostate worship of ‘the starry host’ had evil precedents going as far
back as the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:19; Acts 7:42), but such practices were a
particular sin of Assyro-Babylonians, with their addiction to astrology.” (Payne)

ii. “But this Manasseh sought out for himself unusual and outlandish sins. Bad as
Ahab was, he had not worshipped the host of heaven. That was an Assyrian
worship, and this man must needs import from Assyria and Babylonia worship that
was quite new.” (Spurgeon)

e. He caused his sons to son pass through the fire: Manasseh sacrificed his own son
to the Canaanite god Molech, who was worshipped with the burning of children.

f. Practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and
spiritists: Manasseh invited direct Satanic influence by his approval and
introduction of these occult arts.
i. “The Hebrew word for ‘spiritists’ is yiddeoni, by etymology, ‘a knowing one.’ It
referred originally to ghosts, who were supposed to possess superhuman knowledge;
but it came to be applied to those who claimed power to summon them forth, i.e., to
witches.” (Payne)

g. He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God: The
Chronicler seems too polite to say it, but 2 Kings 21:7 tells us that this idol was
Asherah, the Canaanite goddess of fertility. This god was worshipped through ritual
prostitution. This means that Manasseh made the temple into an idolatrous brothel,
dedicated to Asherah.

i. “From the whole it is evident that Asherah was no other than Venus; the nature of
whose worship is plain enough from the mention of whoremongers and prostitutes.”
(Clarke)

ii. “Manasseh repeated these sins and exaggerated them each time. After one
forbidden idol had been enshrined, he set up another yet more foul, and after
building altars in the courts of the temple, he ventured further . . . Thus he piled up
his transgressions and multiplied his provocations.” (Spurgeon)

h. Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than
the nations whom the LORD had destroyed: 1 Kings 21:9 tells us what the attitude
of the people was: they paid no attention. This described the basic attitude of the
people of Judah during the 55-year reign of Manasseh. They paid no attention to the
generous promises of God, promising protection to His obedient people. In addition,
they were willingly seduced by Manasseh’s wickedness and were attracted to do
more evil.

i. “He did all he could to pervert the national character, and totally destroy the
worship of the true God; and he succeeded.” (Clarke)

ii. “How superficial had been the nation’s compliance with Hezekiah’s reforms!
Without a strong spiritual leader, the sinful people quickly turned to their own evil
machinations. The judgment of God could not be far away.” (Patterson and Austel)

iii. This was a transformation of the culture from something generally God honoring
to a culture that glorified idolatry and immorality. In general we can say this
happened because the people wanted it to happen. They didn’t care about the
direction of their culture.

PULPIT, "He built again; literally, returned and built—the ordinary Hebrew idiom
for "took again to building," etc. Made groves; i.e. as often before the stocks that set
forth Ashtoreth (Deuteronomy 16:21). The parallel gives prominence to the one
Asherah, ten times offensive, as set up in the house of the Lord (2 Chronicles 33:7
there). The mention of his pantheon of the host of heaven is an addition to the
wickedness of former wicked kings. It is also noted in the parallel.

4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of

which the Lord had said, “My ame will remain
in Jerusalem forever.”

ELLICOTT, "(4) Also he built . . . In Jerusalem.—Literally as Kings. Manasseh

built altars in the Temple, as Ahaz had done (2 Kings 16:10, seq.).

Shall my name be for ever.—A heightening of the phrase in Kings, “I will set mv
name.”

PULPIT, "In Jerusalem (so 2 Chronicles 6:6; 2 Chronicles 7:16). The quotation is
from Deuteronomy 12:11.

5 In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built

altars to all the starry hosts.

CLARKE, "He built altars - See the principal facts in this chapter explained in the
notes on 2 Kings 21:1-17 (note).

6 He sacrificed his children in the fire in the

Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and
witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums
and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the
Lord, arousing his anger.

ELLICOTT, "(6) He.—Emphatic. ot in Kings.

Caused his children . . . fire.—The plural, as in 2 Chronicles 28:3, is rhetorical.

Kings, “his son.”

In the valley of the son of Hinnom.—Explanatory addition by the chronicler.

Also he observed times, and used enchantments.—And he practised augury and

divination. Forbidden, Leviticus 19:26. The first words seem strictly to mean
“observed clouds; “the second, “observed serpents.”

And used witchcraft.—And muttered spells or charms. This word does not occur in
the parallel place, but all the offences here ascribed to Manasseh are forbidden in
Deuteronomy 18:10-11.

And dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards.—And appointed a necromancer
and a wizard. Kings has wizards. The source of all these modes of soothsaying was
Babylon. Like the first king of Israel, Manasseh appears to have despaired of help
or counsel from Jehovah. (Comp. Jeremiah 44:17-18.) The heavy yoke of Assyria
again weighed the nation down, and the great deliverance under Hezekiah was
almost forgotten. “To all the Palestinian nations the Assyrian crisis had made
careless confidence in the help of their national deities a thing impossible. As life
was embittered by foreign bondage, the darker aspects of heathenism became
dominant. The wrath of the gods seemed more real than their favour; atoning
ordinances were multiplied, human sacrifices became more frequent, the terror
which hung over all the nations that groaned under the Assyrian yoke found
habitual expression in the ordinances of worship; and it was this aspect of
heathenism that came to the front in Manasseh’s imitations of foreign religion”
(Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, p. 366).

He wrought much evil.—Literally, he multiplied doing the evil. He was worse than
his evil predecessors

PULPIT, "Caused his children. Parallel (2 Kings 21:6), "his son," in the singular
number (see also 2 Kings 16:3 compared with our 2 Chronicles 28:3). There can be
no doubt that this worst of cruel abominations, learned from Ammon and Moab,
amounted to nothing less than the sacrifice of the child in the fire. It is, perhaps,
something remarkable that we do not encounter anywhere any description of the
exact manner of administration of this cruelty, and of its taking effect on the pitiable
victim. The solemn commands of Le 2 Chronicles 18:21 and Deuteronomy 18:10
bespeak sufficiently distinctly the prevision and earnest precaution of the Divine
Ruler of Israel, through Moses, on behalf of his people. The following references all
bear on the subject, and will be studied with advantage in order given: 2 Kings 3:27;
2 Kings 17:17; Ezekiel 20:26; Micah 6:7; Amos 5:26; Jeremiah 7:32; Jeremiah 19:4;
Ezekiel 16:20; Ezekiel 20:26. In the valley of the son of Hinnom (Joshua 15:8;
Joshua 18:16). On an elevation at the eastern extremity of this valley it was that
Solomon erected "high places" to Moloch, entailing on himself a long and dire
responsibility (1 Kings 11:7). Consult also our 2 Chronicles 28:3 and note there;
with added reference, Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine,' pp. 172, 482. Also he observed
times; Revised Version, and he practised augury. The Hebrew word is ‫ ועְוֹנֵן‬. This
root is found once in piel infinitive (Genesis 9:14), and is rendered (Authorized
Version), "when I bring a cloud," etc.; beside, it is found in all ten times, always in
poel, in preterite twice (the present passage and parallel), future once (Le 19:26),
participle seven times, in which six places it is rendered (Authorized Version)
"observing times," once in Isaiah and Micah with rendering "soothsayers," again in
Isaiah "sorcerers," and in Jeremiah "enchanter." There is difficulty in fixing its
exact meaning, though its general meaning may be embraced in the words of the
Revised Version. A likely meaning, judging from derivation, may be the practising
augury from observing of the clouds. The passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy
are those that of old solemnly prohibited it. And used enchantments; Hebrew, ‫; ְונִחֵשׁ‬
the root is the familiar word for "serpent." The verb occurs eleven times, always in
piel. The prohibition to practise such "enchantment" or divination is found in Le
19:26 and Deuteronomy 18:10; the five occasions of the use of the word in Genesis,
however (Genesis 30:27; Genesis 44:5, Genesis 44:15), argue that it was not a thing
intrinsically bad, but bad probably from certain, so to say, simoniacal possibilities to
which it lent itself. There lay in it some assumption, no doubt, of superhuman help,
and the wickedness may have consisted in assuming it where it was not real. And
used witchcraft; Hebrew, ‫ ; ְוכִשֵּׁ ף‬Revised Version, and practised sorcery. The word
is found six times in piel. The prohibition is found in Deuteronomy 18:10; the
rendering of the word (Authorized Version) is by the term "sorcery" three times,
and "witch" or "witchcraft" the other three times. Dealt with a familiar Spirit, and
with wizards. The prohibitions are in Le 19:31; Deuteronomy 20:6, 27;
Deuteronomy 18:11. See as illustrations 1 Samuel 28:3-21; and notice the language
of Isaiah 8:19, "that chirp and mutter;" and Isaiah 19:3.

2 Chronicles 33:7, 2 Chronicles 33:8

(Comp. Psalms 132:13, Psalms 132:14; 2 Samuel 7:10.)

7 He took the image he had made and put it in
God’s temple, of which God had said to David and
to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in
Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the
tribes of Israel, I will put my ame forever.

BARES, "The idol - i. e. the Asherah (2Ki_21:7 note), which receives here (and in
Eze_8:3, Eze_8:5) the somewhat unusual name of semel, which some regard as a proper
name, and compare with the Greek Σεµέλη Semelē.

CLARKE, "A carved image - “He set up an image, the likeness of himself, in the
house of the sanctuary.” The Targumist supposes he wished to procure himself Divine
honors.

ELLICOTT, "(7) And he set . . . had made.—And he set the carven image of the idol
which he had made. “Idol” (sèmel) explains “Asherah,” the term used in Kings.
Both “carven image “and “idol” (Authorised Version, figure) occur in Deuteronomy
4:16.

The house of God.—Chronicles has added, of God, by way of explanation. The

Temple proper is meant, as distinct from the courts.

Before all.—Out of all.

For ever.—Le’êlum, a form only found here (equivalent to le’ólâm).

PARKER, "We shall now see what a man may be in the matter of idolatry.

"He set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God" ( 2
Chronicles 33:7).

This is a mournful episode in the history of depravity; not only did the man make
the idol, but he set it up in God"s house as if it were there of right. How few men
simply plunge into evil; how the most of us approach the pit gradually, almost
indeed imperceptibly. But the sin is in the thought. God knoweth our thought afar
off, in its very protoplasm, its earliest inception, ere yet it is patent to the mind of its
own creator. We sin, then, still in thought a little more; the faint outline becomes a
semi-visible spectre; we encourage it to return tomorrow, and the following night,
and it enlarges upon our vision, and we feel the magic of familiarity; then we turn
the thought into words, and start at our own voice; we try the repetition and feel a
little stronger; we renew the exercise, and become familiar with all its wicked play;
then we become audacious, still confining the action largely within ourselves;
afterwards we seek collateral development, and thus there comes round about us a
strange interlineation of actions, ministries, suggestions, supports, until we find
ourselves setting up our idol in God"s own house. To such lengths may we go! The
young man never supposed he would die a drunkard when he finished his mother"s
glass of wine; in that sip was hell, and he knew it not. Men may come not to idol-
making only, so that in their own houses they may have a place for household gods,
but they may grow so bold in iniquity as to use the sanctuary of God itself for the
worship of evil spirits. Thus we should be careful about the spirit of veneration.
Loss of reverence is loss of spiritual quality. Better have a little tinge of superstition
than be altogether devoid of veneration. To have any spiritual relation is to be in a
happy condition compared with the soul that has nothing but matter, and that has
gone in its foolish imagining to make matter of itself. Better peasant housewife with
her sprig of rosemary or rowan tree laid away to affright the ghosts, than the house
in which there is no recognition of spirit, angel, futurity, immortality, God; from the
one house there may be a way into a larger morning than yet has dawned on time,
but from the other house there could only be some back way into some deeper
darkness.

PULPIT, "A carved image, the idol; translate, a carved image of the idol; i.e. the
Asherah; for see the parallel (2 Kings 21:7). The idol; Hebrew, ‫ ֶס ֶמל‬. This name is
found here and in 2 Chronicles 33:15; in Deuteronomy 4:16, translated (Authorized
Version) "figure;" and Ezekiel 8:3, Ezekiel 8:5, translated (Authorized Version)
"image."

8 I will not again make the feet of the Israelites

leave the land I assigned to your ancestors, if only
they will be careful to do everything I commanded
them concerning all the laws, decrees and
regulations given through Moses.”

ELLICOTT, "(8) Remove.—Kings has a less common expression, “cause to

wander.”

From out of (upon) the land (ground) which I have appointed.—Kings, with which
the versions agree, has the certainly original “from the ground which I gave.”

So that.—If only.

And the statutes and the ordinances.—An explanatory addition. Kings has, “And
according to all the Torah that Moses my servant commanded them.”

By the hand.—By the ministry or instrumentality. The phrase is a characteristic

interpretation of what we read in 2 Kings 21:8; for it carefully notes that the
authority of the Lawgiver was not primary but derived.

9 But Manasseh led Judah and the people of

Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than
the nations the Lord had destroyed before the
Israelites.

ELLICOTT, "(9) So Manasseh . . . heathen.—Literally, And Manasseh led Judah

and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do evil more than the nations. Thenius
thinks that the words and Manasseh. . . . astray, followed in the primary document
immediately upon and he set the graven image in the house; the intermediate words
being an addition by the editor of Kings.

ISBET, "GODLESS AD GODLY

‘Worse than the heathen.’ ‘In affliction he besought the Lord his God.’
2 Chronicles 33:9; 2 Chronicles 33:12
I. It is fearful to think into what depths of wickedness it is possible to fall.—The
story of Manasseh frightens us. He had a good father and was brought up amid holy
influences. Yet when he became king he turned away from all that was good and
beautiful and sank into the worst sins. As we read about the things he did we see the
terrible danger of departing from God. We cannot know where our departure will
end.

II. One of the worst things about a bad life is that it leads others also into evil.—
Manasseh was a king and he led a whole nation astray. A father or mother who does
wrong takes a whole family away from God. But every one has influence over
others. Every young person who lives wickedly draws companions or friends in the
evil course. We ought to think of this when we are tempted. Our sin does not destroy
ourselves only.

III. Sin always brings trouble.—Even if one is not punished at once, doing wrong
draws a curse after it some time. Manasseh’s wickedness brought enemies upon him
and he was carried away as a captive. He was treated shamefully. Chains were put
upon him and he was cruelly used. But it is thus that sin always uses those who
become its slaves. People fancy sometimes that it is hard to be a Christian, but it is
far harder to live in sin. However pleasant it may be at the time we do wrong, it
brings bitterness in the end.

IV. The worst may repent and be saved.—Manasseh had grown into terrible
wickedness, but when he turned his heart to God and called for mercy he was
forgiven and restored. The trouble that his sin brought upon him was God’s way of
bringing him to see the evil of his course and of leading him to repentance. Then not
only was Manasseh forgiven—he was also restored to his place as king, that he
might build up again what he had destroyed. So we see him pulling down the idols
and idol temples he had set up and repairing and restoring the Temple of God
which he had violated. God is very merciful, and there is joy in heaven when a
sinner repents. Manasseh’s repentance caused joy.

Illustrations

(1) ‘After a Hezekiah comes a Manasseh, who entirely changed his policy, and undid
the work of reform, and the men of Judah and Jerusalem followed him into more
evil than did the nations of Canaan. How frail and changeable we are! There is no
stability in human virtue. As a garden will return to a wilderness if it be not
constantly tended, so would all goodness soon die out of the world if it were not for
the grace of the Holy Spirit. The very existence of lovely and noble life among us is a
perpetual witness to His being and energy.’

(2) ‘This repentance of Manasseh was evidently the chief subject in the mind of the
chronicler, and while his sins are painted faithfully, and revealed in all their
hideousness, all this becomes but background, which flings into relief the genuine
penitence and the ready and gracious response of God. It is a wonderful picture in
the midst of the prevailing darkness and persistent wickedness, this revelation of the
readiness of God to pardon. It is always so if men will have it so. Far better to walk
with a perfect heart before God through life; but where this has not been so, if there
be genuine repentance, all the failures but serve to reveal in a clearer light the love
of God. There is a solemn warning in the history of Amon, who, on coming to the
throne, followed the earlier example of his father, and was so utterly corrupt that
his own servants conspired against him and slew him. While personal sin repented
of brings ready forgiveness, the influence of the sinning days is terribly likely to
abide.’
 MACLARE 9-16, "MANASSEH'S SIN AND REPENTANCE
The story of Manasseh’s sin and repentance may stand as a typical example. Its historical
authenticity is denied on the ground that it appears only in this Book of Chronicles. I
must leave others to discuss that matter; my purpose is to bring out the teaching
contained in the story.
The first point in it is the stern indictment against Manasseh and his people. The
experience which has saddened many a humbler home was repeated in the royal house,
where a Hezekiah was followed by a Manasseh, who scorned all that his father had
worshipped, and worshipped all that his father had loathed. Happily the father’s eyes
were closed long before the idolatrous bias of his son could have disclosed itself.
Succeeding to the throne at twelve years of age, he could not have begun his evil ways at
once, and probably would have been preserved from them if his father had lived long
enough to mould his character. A child of twelve, flung on to a throne, was likely to catch
the infection of any sin that was in the atmosphere. The narrative specifies two points in
which, as he matured in years, and was confirmed in his course of conduct, he went
wrong: first, in his idolatry; and second, in his contempt of remonstrances and warnings.
As to the former, the preceding context gives a terrible picture. He was smitten with a
very delirium of idolatry, and wallowed in any and every sort of false worship. No matter
what strange god was presented, there were hospitality, an altar, and an offering for him.
Baal, Moloch, ‘the host of heaven,’ wizards, enchanters, anybody who pretended to have
any sort of black art, all were welcome, and the more the better. No doubt, this eager
acceptance of a miscellaneous multitude of deities was partly reaction from the
monotheism of the former reign, but also it was the natural result of being surrounded
by the worshippers of these various gods; and it was an unconscious confession of the
insufficiency of each and all of them to fill the void in the heart, and satisfy the needs of
the spirit. There are ‘gods many, and lords many,’ because they are insufficient; ‘the Lord
our God is one Lord,’ because He, in His single Self, is more than all these, and is enough
for any and every man.
We may note, too, that at the beginning of the chapter Manasseh is said to have done
‘like unto the abominations of the heathen,’ while in 2Ch_33:9 he is said to have done
‘evil more than did the nations.’ When a worshipper of Jehovah does like the heathen, he
does worse than they. An apostate Christian is more guilty than one who has never
‘tasted the good word of God,’ and is likely to push his sins to a more flagrant
wickedness. ‘The corruption of the best is the worst.’ We cannot do what the world does
without being more deeply guilty than they.
The narrative lays stress on the fact that the king’s inclination to idolatry was agreeable
to the people. The kings, who fought against it, had to resist the popular current, but at
the least encouragement from those in high places the nation was ready to slide back.
Rulers who wish to lower the standard of morality or religion have an easy task; but the
people who follow their lead are not free from guilt, though they can plead that they only
followed. The second count in the indictment is the refusal of king and people to listen to
God’s remonstrances. 2Ki_21:1-26, gives the prophets’ warnings at greater length. ‘They
would not hearken’-can anything madder and sadder be said of any of us than that? Is it
not the very sin of sins, and the climax of suicidal folly, that God should call and men
stop their ears? And yet how many of us pay no more regard to His voice, in His
providences, in our own consciences, in history, in Scripture, and, most penetrating and
beseeching of all, in Christ, than to idle wind whistling through an archway! Our own
evil deeds stop our ears, and the stopped ears make further evil deeds more easy.
The second step in this typical story is merciful chastisement, meant to secure a hearing
for God’s voice. 2 Kings tells the threat, but not the fulfilment; Chronicles tells the
fulfilment, but not the threat. We note how emphatically God’s hand is recognised
behind the political complications which brought the Assyrians to Jerusalem, and how
particularly it is stated that the invasion was not headed by Esarhaddon, but by his
generals. The place of Manasseh’s captivity also is specified, not as Nineveh, as might
have been expected, but as Babylon. These details, especially the last, look like genuine
history. It is history which carries a lesson. Here is one conspicuous instance of the
divine method, which is working to-day as it did then. God’s hand is behind the
secondary causes of events. Our sorrows and ‘misfortunes’ are sent to us by Him, not
hurled at us by human hands only, or occurring by the working of impersonal laws. They
are meant to make us bethink ourselves, and drop evil things from our hands and hearts.
It is best to be guided by His eye, and not need ‘bit and bridle’; but if we make ourselves
stubborn as ‘the mule, which has no understanding,’ it is second best that we should
taste the whip, that it may bring us to run in harness on the road which He wills. If we
habitually looked at calamities as His loving chastisement, intended to draw us to
Himself, we should not have to stand perplexed so often at what we call the mysteries of
His providence.
The next step in the story is the yielding of the sinful heart when smitten. The worst
affliction is an affliction wasted, which does us no good. And God has often to lament, ‘In
vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction.’ Sorrow has in itself no
power to effect the purpose for which it is sent; but all depends on how we take it. It
sometimes makes us hard, bitter, obstinate in clinging to evil. A heart that has been
disciplined by it, and still is undisciplined, is like iron hammered on an anvil, and made
the more close-grained thereby. But this king took his chastisement wisely. An accepted
sorrow is an angel in disguise, and nothing which drives us to God is a calamity.
Manasseh praying was freer in his chains than ever he had been in his prosperity.
Manasseh humbling himself greatly before God was higher than when, in the pride of his
heart, he shut God out from it.
Affliction should clear our sight, that we may see ourselves as we are; and, if we do, there
will be an end of high looks, and we shall ‘take the lowest room.’ Thus humbled, we shall
pray as the self-confident and outwardly prosperous cannot do. Sorrow has done its best
on us when, like some strong hand on our shoulders, it has brought us to our knees. No
affliction has yielded its full blessing to us unless it has thus set us by Manasseh’s side.
The next step in the story is the loving answer to the humbled heart, and the restoration
to the kingdom. ‘He was entreated of him.’ No doubt, political circumstances brought
about Manasseh’s reinstatement, as they had brought about his captivity, but it was God
that ‘brought him again to his kingdom.’ We may not receive again lost good things, but
we may be quite sure that God never fails to hear the cry of the humble, and that, if there
is one voice that more surely reaches His ear and moves His heart than another, it is the
voice of His chastened children, who cry to Him out of the depths, and there have
learned their own sin and sore need. He will be entreated of them, and, whether He gives
back lost good or not, He will give Himself, in whom all good is comprehended.
Manasseh’s experience may be repeated in us.
And the best part of it was, not that he received back his kingdom, but that ‘then
Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.’ The name had been but a name to him, but
now it had become a reality. Our traditional, second-hand belief in God is superficial and
largely unreal till it is deepened and vivified by experience. If we have cried to Him, and
been lightened, then we have a ground of conviction that cannot be shaken. Formerly we
could at most say, ‘I believe in God,’ or, ‘I think there is a God,’ but now we can say, ‘I
know,’ and no criticism nor contradiction can shake that. Such knowledge is not the
knowledge won by the understanding alone, but it is acquaintance with a living Person,
like the knowledge which loving souls have of each other; and he who has that
knowledge as the issue of his own experience may smile at doubts and questionings, and
say with the Apostle of Love, ‘We know that we are of God, . . . and we know that the Son
of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true.’
Then, if we have that knowledge, we shall listen to the same Apostle’s commandment,
‘Keep yourselves from idols,’ even as the issue of Manasseh’s knowledge of God was that
‘he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord.’

10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people,

but they paid no attention.

GILL, "And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people,.... By his servants
the prophets, see 2Ki_21:10, where what was said to them is recorded:

but they would not hearken; to what was said, to reproofs, admonitions, and
exhortations to repent and reform.

K&D, "At 2Ch_33:10, the account in the Chronicle diverges from that in 2 Kings. In
2Ki_21:10-16 it is related how the Lord caused it to be proclaimed by the prophets, that
in punishment of Manasseh's sins Jerusalem would be destroyed, and the people given
into the power of their enemies, and how Manasseh filled Jerusalem with the shedding
of innocent blood. Instead of this, in 2Ch_33:10 of the Chronicle it is only briefly said
that the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken; and
then in 2Ch_33:11-17 it is narrated that Manasseh was led away to Babylon by the king
of Assyria's captains of the host; in his trouble turned to the Lord his God, and prayed;
was thereupon brought by God back to Jerusalem; after his return, fortified Jerusalem
with a new wall; set commanders over all the fenced cities of Judah; abolished the
idolatry in the temple and the city, and restored the worship of Jahve.

ELLICOTT, "(10) And the Lord spake to Manasseh.—“By the hand of his servants
the prophets.” See

2 Kings 21:10-15, where the substance of the prophetic message is given; and it is
added (2 Chronicles 33:16) that Manasseh also shed very much innocent blood, “till
he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other.” The reaction against the reforms
of Hezekiah ended in a bloody struggle, in which the party of reform was fiercely
suppressed.

PARKER, ""And the Lord spake to Prayer of Manasseh , and to his people: but
they would not hearken" ( 2 Chronicles 33:10).

These are what we call remonstrances. Sometimes the expostulation is addressed to

the heart in a sweet tone; it comes through the ministry of father, mother, pastor,
friend, nearest and dearest one; sometimes it is lowered to a whisper; then it
becomes poignant as a cry, then it becomes importunate as shower upon shower of
gracious rain; then there comes into it an indication of heaven"s pain and torment,
because so much is despised and rejected that is evidently of God. "My Spirit shall
not always strive with man." Is it possible for God to speak and man not to
hearken? We should dispute it as a theory—we are bound to own it as a fact. A
child can shut out the midday sun. There is no summer that ever warmed the earth
that can get into a house if the owner of that house determine to block out the genial
blessing. We can keep Christ standing outside, knocking at the door; we can say in
bitterness of soul, Let him stand there, though his locks be heavy with the dew of
night. We can multiply impiety towards God.

GUZIK, "B. Manasseh’s repentance.

1. (2 Chronicles 33:10-11) God chastises of Manasseh.

And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen.
Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of
Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and
carried him off to Babylon.

a. And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people: This was the great mercy of
God. He was under no obligation to warn or correct them; God would have been
completely justified to bring judgment immediately. Instead, the LORD spoke to
Manasseh and his people.

i. 2 Kings 21:10-15 tells more about these specific warnings of the prophets.

b. But they would not listen: Despite God’s gracious warnings, neither the king nor
the people would listen. God found more compelling ways to speak to the rulers and
people of Judah.

i. 2 Kings 21:16 tells us of the terrible extent of Manasseh’s sin: Moreover Manasseh
shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another,
besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
ii. “We cannot vouch for the tradition that the prophet Isaiah was put to death by
him by being sawn in sunder, but terrible as is the legend, it is not at all
improbable.” (Spurgeon)

c. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of
Assyria: God allowed Manasseh to be taken and carried away as a captive, after the
pattern of his own sinful bondage.

i. “God sent him into the dungeon to repent; as he did David into the depths, and
Jonah into the whale’s belly to pray. Adversity hath whipt many a soul to heaven,
which otherwise prosperity had coached to hell.” (Trapp)

ii. “o mention is made of Manasseh’s exile in Assyrian sources, even though
Manasseh appears in the annals of Esarhaddon (680-669 B.C.) and Ahsurbanipal
(668-626 B.C.) as a rather unwilling vassal forced to provide supplies for Assyria’s
building and military enterprises. It is quite possible that he rebelled against these
impositions at some point.” (Selman)

iii. “Manasseh’s presence in Babylon is not surprising, since Assyria had had a long
interest in Babylon, which was under the direct control for the whole of
Esarhaddon’s reign and after Shamash-shum-unkin’s demise.” (Selman)

SIMEO, "MAASSEH’S REPETACE

2 Chronicles 33:10-13. 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 entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and
brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the
Lord he was God.

I histories written by men, our attention is continually directed to second causes;

but in the inspired records we see every event traced up to the first Great Cause of
all. The rise and fall of empires or of individuals are equally appointed of God for
the accomplishment of his own gracious purposes, and for the manifestation of his
own glory: and, however casual or contingent any circumstances may appear to be,
they are as much under his control, and as certainly fulfil his will, as the stated
courses of the heavenly bodies.

In confirmation of this, we need go no further than to the words before us; in which
we see,

I. The means by which Manasseh was brought to repentance—

[King Manasseh was perhaps the most wicked of the human race: he was piously
educated; yet he totally eradicated from his own mind, and from the breasts of his
people, all remembrance of the instructions which his father Hezekiah had given
them. He consulted wizards, set up idols even in the house of God itself, made his
children pass through fire to Moloch, and filled Jerusalem with the blood of
innocents from one end to another. He acted himself, and caused all his people to
act, worse than the heathen whom God had cast out for their impieties [ote:
Compare 2 Kings 21 with the preceding part of this chapter.].

To reclaim him God had sent many holy men and prophets to warn and exhort him:
but “neither he nor his people would hearken unto them.”

At last, determined to overcome him, and to make him an everlasting monument of

grace and mercy. God stirred up the king of Assyria against him [ote: The king of
Babylon, who on account of his having added Assyria to his dominions is called the
king of Assyria, is said to have been “brought upon” Manasseh by God himself.
And, however he might be actuated by ambition or avarice, he was certainly no
more than an instrument by whom God himself acted. Compare Psalms 17:13 and
Isaiah 10:5-6; Isaiah 10:15. with 2 Kings 24:2-4.]; and caused Manasseh to be
vanquished, to be dragged from the thicket where he had secreted himself [ote: 1
Samuel 13:6.], and to be carried a poor miserable captive in fetters to Babylon.

This prevailed, when all other means had been used in vain. And is it not by these
means that God has often subdued, and yet subdues many stout-hearted sinners to
himself [ote: 2 Samuel 24:10; 2 Samuel 24:17.]? How many perhaps amongst us
must say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; for before I was afflicted I
went astray; but now have I kept thy word [ote: Psalms 119:67; Psalms 119:71.].”]

We are further informed concerning,

II. The way in which his repentance shewed itself—

[Affliction does not necessarily produce repentance. Ahaz trespassed yet more in his
distress [ote: 2 Chronicles 28:22.]; and the wicked in hell, so far from being
softened by their pains, blaspheme their God while they gnaw their tongues for
anguish [ote: Revelation 16:10.]. But in him it was effectual, through the grace of
God, to bring him to repentance. In his prosperity he was hardened [ote: Jeremiah
22:21.], and would not hear [ote: Zechariah 7:11-12. Jeremiah 5:3.]; but “in his
affliction he besought the Lord.”

Two things more especially are noticed: “he humbled himself greatly;” and “he
prayed unto God” earnestly. He called his ways to remembrance and confessed his
guilt, and justified God in all that had come upon him, and in all that ever should
come upon him, declaring it was far “less than his iniquities deserved.” Then he
poured out his soul in fervent prayer, “offering his supplications with strong crying
and tears,” and wrestling, as it were, with God, to obtain a blessing [ote: His
prayer is repeatedly noticed, ver. 18, 19. doubtless on account of its fervour.].
Thus will repentance shew itself, wherever it is found: whether we be brought to it
by afflictions, or not; yea, whether we have committed such wickedness as
Manasseh, or not; these will be the leading features of our experience, if we be truly
penitent. The first mark of Paul’s repentance was, “Behold, he prayeth!” and what
his thoughts of himself were, we may judge from his calling himself “the chief of
sinners.” Inquire then, beloved Brethren, whether you have ever been brought to
humble yourselves before God; and that not a little, but “greatly?” Inquire, whether
your cries to God are humble, fervent, constant, believing? Consider, “that without
repentance you must all perish;” and that this alone will warrant you to conclude
your repentance genuine and “saving.”]

Its efficacy will appear from,

III. The blessed issue of it—

[Horrible as his iniquities had been, they did not prevent his prayers from coming
up with acceptance before God.

Behold the issue of this repentance, first, in respect to his temporal comfort! God
restored him again to the possession of his kingdom. And it is certain that
innumerable judgments would be removed from men, provided the offenders were
duly humbled by means of them. We say not indeed that God will always remove the
afflictions he has sent, even though we should be ever so much humbled under
them; because he may see that the continuance of them is as necessary for our
welfare as the first sending of them was: but he will convert them into blessings, and
make them subservient to our best interests.

ext, observe the issue of his repentance in respect to his spiritual advantage. He
neither knew God, nor concerned himself about him in the day of his prosperity:
but now he “knew that Jehovah was God.” He saw that he was a just and holy God,
yea, a God of truth also, who sooner or later would punish sin. He felt that he was a
powerful God, “able to abase those who walk in pride,” and able also to deliver
those whose situation was most desperate. Above all, he knew experimentally that
God was a God of infinite mercy and compassion, since he had attended to his
prayer, and vouchsafed mercy to his guilty soul. Under this conviction he strove, to
the latest hour of his life, to remedy all the evil he had ever done, and to glorify his
God as much as he had before dishonoured him.

And did ever any one repent, and not find his repentance issue in clearer
manifestations of God’s love to his soul, and in a richer experience of his power and
grace? o: as long as the world stands, “God will comfort all that mourn in Zion,
and give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness.”]

We may learn then from hence,

1. The importance of improving ordinances—

[The contempt poured on God’s messages was one principal mean of bringing down
those judgments on Manasseh. And does not God speak to us by his ministers; and
notice how we receive the word? And will not that “word be a savour of death unto
us, if it be not a savour of life unto life?” Lay this to heart, all ye who have heard the
word in vain: and know that if you slight the message which God sends you by his
ministers, he will consider you as pouring contempt upon himself [ote: 1
Thessalonians 4:8.].]

2. The use and benefit of afflictions—

[Afflictions, of whatever kind they be, proceed from God; and are intended for our
good [ote: Hosea 5:15. Hebrews 12:10.]. They have a voice, no less than his
ministers; and it is our duty to “hear the rod, and Him that appointed it [ote:
Micah 6:9.].” Quarrel not then with any afflictions that may be sent you; but receive
them as tokens of God’s love, and as messengers of his mercy. What reason had
Manasseh to adore his God for the loss of an empire, yea, for cruel captivity, for
galling fetters, and a loathsome dungeon! Without them he had been now in chains
of darkness and the prison of hell. Thy trials probably are no less necessary for
thine eternal welfare. Improve them then for the humbling of thy soul, and for the
furtherance of thine everlasting salvation.]

3. The wonderful mercy of our God—

[Who would have thought that such a sinner as Manasseh could ever have obtained
mercy? Yet God has pardoned him, and set him forth as a pattern, in order to
magnify the exceeding riches of his own grace. Let none then despair. If we were as
vile as Manasseh himself, we should go to God with an assurance that he would not
cast us out, provided we were truly contrite, and sought for mercy through the
blood of Jesus. On the other hand, let us not presume upon this mercy, and go on in
sin under the hope that we shall at last repent and be saved. To-day God calls us; to-
morrow the door of mercy may be shut. The Lord grant that we may now repent
like Manasseh, and henceforth like him devote ourselves entirely to the service of
our God!]

BI 10-11, "And bound him with fetters.

Divine discipline
The proper way for a sinner to be brought to God is for God to speak to him, and for him
to hear. Manasseh would not come that way, so God fetched him back by a rougher road.
I. The Lord often allows temporal trials to take men captive.
1. Business disasters.
2. Want of employment.
 3. Extraordinary troubles.
4. Bodily affliction.
5. The loss of dear friends.
II. The lord sometimes allows men to be bound by mental trials; “ bound with fetters.”
Such as—
1. When sin ceases to afford pleasure. The very things that once made him all aglow
with delight do not affect him now, nor cast a single ray of light on his path.
2. The daily avocation becomes distasteful.
3. There is great inability in prayer.
4. Your old sins come out of their hiding-places.
5. A great want of power to grasp the promises.
6. A fear of death and dread of judgment.
Conclusion: In order to your comfort and peace—
1. Know that the Lord is God.
2. Humble yourself before Him.
3. Begin to pray.
4. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

11 So the Lord brought against them the army

commanders of the king of Assyria, who took
Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound
him with bronze shackles and took him to
Babylon.

BARES, "The Assyrian monuments contain no record of this expedition; but there
can be little doubt that it fell into the reign of Esarhaddon (2Ki_19:37 note), who reigned
at least thirteen years. Esarhaddon mentions Manasseh among his tributaries; and he
was the only king of Assyria who, from time to time, held his court at Babylon.
Among the thorns - Translate - “ with rings;” and see 2Ki_19:28 note.
GILL, "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of
the king of Assyria,.... Who was Esarhaddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib;
this, according to the Jewish chronology (f), was in the twenty second year of
Manasseh's reign:

which took Manasseh among the thorns; in a thicket of briers and thorns, where,
upon his defeat, he had hid himself; a fit emblem of the afflictions and troubles his sins
brought him into:

and bound him with fetters; hands and feet; with chains of brass, as the Targum,
such as Zedekiah was bound with, 2Ki_25:7, not chains of gold, with which Mark Antony
bound a king of Armenia, for the sake of honour (g):

and carried him to Babylon; for now the king of Assyria was become master of that
city, and added it to his monarchy, and made it the seat of his residence; at least some
times that and sometimes Nineveh, Merodachbaladan being dead, or conquered;
though, according to Suidas (h), it was he that took Manasseh; and by an Arabic writer
(i), he is said to be carried to Nineveh.

HERY, "We have seen Manasseh by his wickedness undoing the good that his
father had done; here we have him by repentance undoing the evil that he himself had
done. It is strange that this was not so much as mentioned in the book of Kings, nor does
any thing appear there to the contrary but that he persisted and perished in his son. But
perhaps the reason was because the design of that history was to show the wickedness of
the nation which brought destruction upon them; and this repentance of Manasseh and
the benefit of it, being personal only and not national, is overlooked there; yet here it is
fully related, and a memorable instance it is of the riches of God's pardoning mercy and
the power of his renewing grace. Here is,
I. The occasion of Manasseh's repentance, and that was his affliction. In his distress he
did not (like king Ahaz) trespass yet more against God, but humbled himself and
returned to God. Sanctified afflictions often prove happy means of conversion. What his
distress was we are told, 2Ch_33:11. God brought a foreign enemy upon him; the king of
Babylon, that courted his father who faithfully served God, invaded him now that he had
treacherously departed from God. He is here called king of Assyria, because he had
made himself master of Assyria, which he would the more easily do for the defeat of
Sennacherib's army, and its destruction before Jerusalem. He aimed at the treasures
which the ambassadors had seen, and all those precious things; but God sent him to
chastise a sinful people, and subdue a straying prince. The captain took Manasseh
among the thorns, in some bush or other, perhaps in his garden, where he had hid
himself. Or it is spoken figuratively: he was perplexed in his counsels and embarrassed
in his affairs. He was, as we say, in the briers, and knew not which way to extricate
himself, and so became an easy prey to the Assyrian captains, who no doubt plundered
his house and took away what they pleased, as Isaiah had foretold, 2Ki_20:17, 2Ki_
20:18. What was Hezekiah's pride was their prey. They bound Manasseh, who had been
held before with the cords of his own iniquity, and carried him prisoner to Babylon.
About what time of his reign this was we are not told; the Jews say it was in his twenty-
second year.

JAMISON, "2Ch_33:11-19. He is carried unto Babylon, where he humbles himself

before God, and is restored to his kingdom.
the captains of the host of the king of Assyria — This king was Esar-haddon.
After having devoted the first years of his reign to the consolidation of his government at
home, he turned his attention to repair the loss of the tributary provinces west of the
Euphrates, which, on the disaster and death of Sennacherib, had taken the opportunity
of shaking off the Assyrian yoke. Having overrun Palestine and removed the remnant
that were left in the kingdom of Israel, he dispatched his generals, the chief of whom was
Tartan (Isa_20:1), with a portion of his army for the reduction of Judah also. In a
successful attack upon Jerusalem, they took multitudes of captives, and got a great prize,
including the king himself, among the prisoners.
took Manasseh among the thorns — This may mean, as is commonly supposed,
that he had hid himself among a thicket of briers and brambles. We know that the
Hebrews sometimes took refuge from their enemies in thickets (1Sa_13:6). But, instead
of the Hebrew, Bacochim, “among the thorns”, some versions read Bechayim, “among the
living”, and so the passage would be “took him alive.”
bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon — The Hebrew word
rendered “fetters” denotes properly two chains of brass. The humiliating state in which
Manasseh appeared before the Assyrian monarch may be judged of by a picture on a
tablet in the Khorsabad palace, representing prisoners led bound into the king’s
presence. “The captives represented appear to be inhabitants of Palestine. Behind the
prisoners stand four persons with inscriptions on the lower part of their tunics; the first
two are bearded, and seem to be accusers; the remaining two are nearly defaced; but
behind the last appears the eunuch, whose office it seems to be to usher into the
presence of the king those who are permitted to appear before him. He is followed by
another person of the same race as those under punishment; his hands are manacled,
and on his ankles are strong rings fastened together by a heavy bar” [Nineveh and Its
Palaces]. No name is given, and, therefore, no conclusion can be drawn that the figure
represents Manasseh. But the people appear to be Hebrews, and this pictorial scene will
enable us to imagine the manner in which the royal captive from Judah was received in
the court of Babylon. Esar-haddon had established his residence there; for though from
the many revolts that followed the death of his father, he succeeded at first only to the
throne of Assyria, yet having some time previous to his conquest of Judah, recovered
possession of Babylon, this enterprising king had united under his sway the two empires
of Babylon and Chaldea and transferred the seat of his government to Babylon

K&D, "As Manasseh would not hear the words of the prophets, the Lord brought upon
him the captains of the host of the king of Assyria. These “took him with hooks, and
bound him with double chains of brass, and brought him to Babylon.” ‫ּוחים‬ ִ ‫דוּ ַבח‬9ְ ‫יִ ְל‬
signifies neither, they took him prisoner in thorns (hid in the thorns), nor in a place
called Chochim (which is not elsewhere found), but they took him with hooks. :ַ‫חּוח‬
denotes the hook or ring which was drawn through the gills of large fish when taken
(Job_41:2), and is synonymous with ‫( ַחח‬2Ki_19:28; Eze_19:4), a ring which was
passed through the noses of wild beasts to subdue and lead them. The expression is
figurative, as in the passages quoted from the prophets. Manasseh is represented as an
unmanageable beast, which the Assyrian generals took and subdued by a ring in the
nose. The figurative expression is explained by the succeeding clause: they bound him
with double chains. ‫ נְ ֻח ְשׁ ַ;יִ ם‬are double fetters of brass, with which the feet of prisoners
were bound (2Sa_3:34; Jdg_16:21; 2Ch_36:6, etc.).

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:11. The Lord brought upon them the captains of the
host of the king of Assyria — Some suppose that Esar-haddon, the successor of
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is here meant, and that, in consequence of the royal
family failing in Babylon, he found means to bring that kingdom under his yoke
again; or that, by force of arms, or some other means, he recovered it from
Merodach-Baladan. They say that he held it thirteen years, and that it was during
this time that Manasseh was taken and carried captive to Babylon. Others think it
more probable that the king of Babylon is here called the king of Assyria, because
he had added Assyria to his empire, and that having been informed by his
ambassadors of the great riches which were in Hezekiah’s treasures at Jerusalem,
and being assured of Manasseh’s degeneracy from the piety of his father, and from
that God whose power alone made Hezekiah formidable, he thought this a fit season
to invade Manasseh’s kingdom, which the Jews say he did, in the twenty- second
year of his reign. Which took Manasseh among the thorns — In some thicket where
he thought to have hid himself from the Assyrians till he could make an escape: or,
as the Hebrew ‫בחוחים‬, bachochim, may be rendered, with hooks, metaphorically
speaking; or, in his forts, that is, in one of them.

COFFMA, "This, of course, is information found nowhere else in the

Bible; and it was was once common among critics to reject this episode
as unhistorical. Fortunately, wiser scholars now accept what is
recorded here as authentic history. The Chronicler does not give us the
date in Manasseh's reign when this happened; but Ellison placed the
event very late in Manasseh's reign. "This explains why Manasseh's
repentance and reformation (2 Chronicles 33:12-17) are not mentioned
in Kings, and why they left no lasting impression."[1] This also explains
why the altars of the host of heaven were apparently not removed by
Manasseh. He was a vassal of Assyria and would have been afraid to
remove them. Such subservience of Manasseh to the Assyrian overlords
has been proved by the Babylonian inscriptions.[2]

In the light of all the facts, there is no reason whatever to doubt a single
word of what is recorded here. Jacob M. Myers also found nothing at
all improbable about what is written here.[3] "It may be taken for
granted that vassal kings were allowed to return to their countries after
being put under the threat of divine retribution with its terrible
consequences."[4]
J Barton Payne in Wycliffe Bible Commentary also dated this period of
Manasseh's conversion during the last six years of his reign. "It was
perhaps in 648 B.C., when Ashurbanipal overcame a four-year revolt
led by his brother in Babylon. Egypt took that opportunity to throw off
the Assyrian yoke, and Manasseh might have attempted the same thing
with less success. It was in that affliction that Manasseh humbled
himself. God sometimes has to drive men to their conversion."[5]

ELLICOTT, "(11) Wherefore.—And.

The captains of the host of the king of Assyria.—The generals of

Esarhaddon, or rather, perhaps, of Assurbanipal. The former, who
reigned from 681-668 B.C. , has recorded the fact that Manasseh was
his vassal. He says: “And I assembled the kings of the land of Hatti, and
the marge of the sea, Baal king of Tyre, Me-na-si-e (or Mi-in-si-e) king
of Ya-u-di (i.e., Judah), Qa-us-gabri, king of Edom,” &c. “Altogether,
twenty-two kings of the land of Hatti [Syria], the coast of the sea, and
the middle of the sea, all of them, I caused to hasten,” &c. Assurbanipal
has left a list which is identical with that of Esarhaddon, except that it
gives different names for the kings of Arvad and Ammon. It thus
appears that Manasseh paid tribute to him as well as to his father.
Schrader (K.A.T., p. 367, seq.) thinks that Manasseh was at least
suspected of being implicated along with the other princes of Phoenicia-
Palestine in the revolt of Assurbanipars brother Samar-sum-ukin (circ.
648-647 B.C. ) in which Elam, Gutium, and Meroë also participated;
and that he was carried to Babylon, to clear himself of suspicion, and to
give assurances of his fidelity to the great king.

Which took Manasseh among the thorns.—And they took Manasseh

prisoner with the hooks (ba-ḫôḫîm). The hooks might be such as the
Assyrian kings were wont to pass through the nostrils and lips of their
more distinguished prisoners. Comp. Isaiah 37:29, “I will put my hook
in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips;” and comp. Amos 4:2, “He will
take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks.” Comp.
also Job 41:2, “Canst thou bore his jaw with a hook?” [The LXX.,
Vulg., Targ. render the word “chains.” Syriac confuses the word with
chayyîm, “life,” and renders “took Manasseh in his life.”] Perhaps,
however, the meaning is, and they took Manasseh prisoner at Hohim.
There is no reason why Hohim should not be a local name, as well as
Coz (1 Chronicles 4:8).

And bound him with fetters.—With the double chain of bronze, as the
Philistines bound Samson (Judges 16:21). So Sennacherib relates:
“Suzubu king of Babylon, in the battle alive their hands took him; in
fetters of bronze they put him, and to my presence brought him. In the
great gate in the midst of the city of ineveh I bound him fast.” This
happened in 695 B.C., only a few years before the similar captivity of
Manasseh.

And carried him.—Caused him to go, or led him away.

To Babylon.—Where Assurbanipal was holding his court at the time, as

he appears to have done after achieving the overthrow of his brother
the rebellious viceroy, and assuming the title of king of Babylon himself.

PARKER, "What after this?

"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" ( 2 Chronicles 33:11).

The king had his way there. The wicked man is always weak. If this
word rendered "among the thorns" be not a proper name, then it has a
singular significance: the king of Assyria took Manasseh with hooks,
put a hook through his nostril, put a hook through his lip, and carried
him to Babylon. So have we seen an ox carried to the slaughter-house.
The man who was thus treated had despised remonstrance. The Lord
did not leap upon him at once. "He that being often reproved hardeneth
his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
Observe how the word "suddenly" comes in. It comes in after the
assurance that the reproof has been "often"—that is to say, the reproof
has been repeated in various forms, in various tones, under various
circumstances, and reproof having been driven back the Lord brings in
the punishment which cannot be averted.

POOLE, "Among the thorns; in some thicket where he thought to hide

himself from the Assyrians till he could make an escape, as the
Israelites formerly used to do, 1 Samuel 13:6. Or, with hooks; a
metaphorical expression. Or, in his forts, i.e. in one of them.

Carried him to Babylon; either therefore Esar-haddon, Sennacherib’s

successor, had recovered Babylon from Merodach-baladan; or rather,
the king of Babylon is here called

the king of Assyria, because at this time he had added Assyria to his
empire; who having been informed by his ambassadors of the great
riches which were in Hezekiah’s treasures at Jerusalem, which he was
desirous to enjoy; and withal, being assured of Manasseh’s degeneracy
from the piety and virtue of his father, and from that God whose power
alone made Hezekiah formidable, he thought this a fit season to invade
Manasseh’s kingdom; which he did with success.

PULPIT, "The contents of this and the following six verses (to the
seventeenth) are not in the parallel, though their place there is plain.
That parallel, however, supplies in its 2 Chronicles 33:16 a very forcible
narration of the evil conduct of Manasseh in Jerusalem itself, so that he
"filled" it with "innocent blood" from "one end to another." The King
of Assyria; i.e. either Esarhaddon, B.C. 680, or (though it is not
probable) his son, Assur-banipal, B.C. 667-647. Among the thorns; i.e.
with hooks or rings (so 2 Kings 19:28, where the same word is used; as
also in Exodus 35:22; Isaiah 37:29; Ezekiel 19:4, Ezekiel 19:9; Ezekiel
29:4; Ezekiel 38:4).

12 In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord

his God and humbled himself greatly before the
God of his ancestors.
 CLARKE, "And when he was in affliction - Here is a very large addition in the
Chaldee: “For the Chaldeans made a brazen mule, pierced full of small holes, and put
him within it, and kindled fires all around it; and when he was in this misery, he sought
help of all the idols which he had made, but obtained none, for their were of no use. He
therefore repented, and prayed before the Lord his God, and was greatly humbled in the
sight of the Lord God of his fathers.”

GILL, "And when he was in affliction,.... In prison; however, in fetters; according

to the Targum, the Chaldeans made an instrument of brass with holes in it, and put him
in it, and fire about it, something like the brasen bull of Perillus; and the above Arabian
writer (k) calls it a tower of brass:

he besought the Lord his God; by prayer and supplication:

and humbled himself greatly before the Lord God of his fathers; confessing his
sins, expressing great sorrow and repentance for them.

HERY 12-14, "II. The expressions of his repentance (2Ch_33:12, 2Ch_33:13):

When he was in affliction he had time to bethink himself and reason enough too. He saw
what he had brought himself to by his sin. He found the gods he had served unable to
help him. He knew that repentance was the only way of restoring his affairs; and
therefore to him he returned from whom he had revolted. 1. He was convinced the
Jehovah is the only living and true God: Then he knew (that is, he believed and
considered) that the Lord he was God. He might have known it at a less expense if he
would have given due attention and credit to the word written and preached: but it was
better to pay thus dearly for the knowledge of God than to perish in ignorance and
unbelief. Had he been a prince in the palace of Babylon, it is probable he would have
been confirmed in his idolatry; but, being a captive in the prisons of Babylon, he was
convinced of it and reclaimed from it. 2. He applied to him as his God now, renouncing
all others, and resolving to cleave to him only, the God of his fathers, and a God on
covenant with him. 3. He humbled himself greatly before him, was truly sorry for his
sins, ashamed of them, and afraid of the wrath of God. It becomes sinners to humble
themselves before the face of that God whom they have offended. It becomes sufferers to
humble themselves under the hand of that God who corrects them, and to accept the
punishment of their iniquity. Our hearts should be humbled under humbling
providences; then we accommodate ourselves to them, and answer God's end in them. 4.
He prayed to him for the pardon of sin and the return of his favour. Prayer is the relief of
penitents, the relief of the afflicted. That is a good prayer, and very pertinent in this case,
which we find among the apocryphal books, entitled, The prayer of Manasses, king of
Judah, when he was holden captive in Babylon. Whether it was his or no is uncertain; if
it was, in it he gives glory to God as the God of their fathers and their righteous seed, as
the Creator of the world, a God whose anger is insupportable, and yet his merciful
promise unmeasurable. He pleads that God has promised repentance and forgiveness
to those that have sinned, and has appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be
saved, not unto the just, as to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but to me (says he) that am a
sinner; for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea: so he confesses his
sin largely, and aggravates it. He prays, Forgive me, O Lord! forgive me, and destroy me
not; he pleads, Thou art the God of those that repent, etc., and concludes, Therefore I
will praise thee for ever, etc.
 III. God's gracious acceptance of his repentance: God was entreated of him, and
heard his supplication. Though affliction drive us to God, he will not therefore reject us
if in sincerity we seek him, for afflictions are sent on purpose to bring us to him. As a
token of God's favour to him, he made a way for his escape. Afflictions are continued no
longer than till they have done their work. When Manasseh is brought back to his God
and to his duty he shall soon be brought back to his kingdom. See how ready God is to
accept and welcome returning sinners, and how swift to show mercy. Let not great
sinners despair, when Manasseh himself, upon his repentance, found favour with God;
in him God showed forth a pattern of long-suffering, as 1Ti_1:16; Isa_1:18.

JAMISO 12-13, "when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God
— In the solitude of exile or imprisonment, Manasseh had leisure for reflection. The
calamities forced upon him a review of his past life, under a conviction that the miseries
of his dethronement and captive condition were owing to his awful and unprecedented
apostasy (2Ch_33:7) from the God of his fathers. He humbled himself, repented, and
prayed for an opportunity of bringing forth the fruits of repentance. His prayer was
heard; for his conqueror not only released him, but, after two years’ exile, restored him,
with honor and the full exercise of royal power, to a tributary and dependent kingdom.
Some political motive, doubtless, prompted the Assyrian king to restore Manasseh, and
that was most probably to have the kingdom of Judah as a barrier between Egypt and his
Assyrian dominions. But God overruled this measure for higher purposes. Manasseh
now showed himself, by the influence of sanctified affliction, a new and better man. He
made a complete reversal of his former policy, by not only destroying all the idolatrous
statues and altars he had formerly erected in Jerusalem, but displaying the most ardent
zeal in restoring and encouraging the worship of God.

K&D 12-13, "‫וּב ֵעת ָה ֵצר לּו = ְוּכ ָה ֵצר לּו‬,

ְ 2Ch_28:22. In this his affliction he bowed
himself before the Lord God of his fathers, and besought Him; and the Lord was
entreated of him, and brought him again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. The prayer
which Manasseh prayed in his need was contained, according to 2Ch_33:18., in the
histories of the kings of Israel, and in the sayings of the prophet Hozai, but has not come
down to our day. The “prayer of Manasseh” given by the lxx is an apocryphal production,
composed in Greek; cf. my Introduction to the Old Testament, § 247.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:12. When he was in affliction he besought the Lord his
God — Being “deprived of his authority and liberty, and secluded from his evil
counsellors and companions, and from all his pleasures, in chains, and in a prison,
without any other prospect than of ending his days in that wretched situation, he
had leisure to reflect on what had passed. He then, no doubt, recollected the honour,
prosperity, and deliverances with which his father had been favoured; his own good
education, with the instruction and warnings of the prophets; and his atrocious,
multiplied, and daring crimes: and he remembered that his miseries had been
foretold by his faithful monitors. Thus, by the special grace of God, his solitude and
affliction brought him to view his own conduct and character in another light than
before, and he began to cry for mercy and deliverance, humbling himself greatly
before the God of his fathers.” — Scott. Bishop Hall remarks, from this verse, the
truth of that saying of the prophet, Affliction giveth understanding. “If the cross
bear us not to heaven,” says he, “nothing can. What use were there of the grain, but
for the edge of the sickle, wherewith it is cut down; the stroke of the flail, wherewith
it is beaten; the weight and attrition of the mill, wherewith it is crushed; the fire of
the oven, wherewith it is baked? Say now, Manasseh, with that grand-father of
thine, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; thine iron was more precious to
thee than thy gold; thy jail was a more happy lodging to thee than thy palace;
Babylon was a better school to thee than Jerusalem. How foolish are we to frown
upon our afflictions! These, how severe soever, are our best friends: they are not
indeed for our pleasure, they are for our profit; their issue makes them worthy of a
welcome. What do we care how bitter that potion is which brings us health?”

COKE, ". When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord, &c.— The Jews have a
tradition, that while Manasseh was at Babylon, by the direction of his conqueror, he
was put in a large brazen vessel, full of holes, and set near a great fire; that, in his
extremity, he had recourse to all those false deities to whom he had offered so many
sacrifices, but received no relief from them; that, remembering what he had heard
his good father Hezekiah say, namely, "When thou art in tribulation, if thou turn to
the Lord thy God, he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee." Deuteronomy
4:30-31 he was thereupon immediately delivered, and in a moment translated to his
kingdom. This is no less a fiction than that miraculous flame, which the author of
the imperfect comment upon St. Matthew speaks of, that encompassed Manasseh on
a sudden as he was praying to God, and, having melted his chains asunder, set him
at liberty. In all probability, it was Saos-duchin, the successor of Esar-haddon, who,
some years after his captivity, released Manasseh out of prison. Bishop Hall
remarks, from this verse, the truth of that saying of the prophet, Affliction giveth
understanding. If the cross bear us not to heaven, says he, nothing can. What use
were there of the grain, but for the edge of the sickle wherewith it is cut down, the
stroke of the flail wherewith it is threshed, the weight and attrition of the mill
wherewith it is crushed, the fire of the oven wherewith it is baked? Say now,
Manasseh, with that grandfather of thine, It is good for me that I have been
afflicted: thine iron was more precious to thee than thy gold; thy jail was a more
happy lodging to thee than thy palace; Babylon was a better school to thee than
Jerusalem. How foolish are we, to frown upon our afflictions! These, how severe
soever, are our best friends: they are not, indeed, for our pleasure, but for our
profit; their issue makes them worthy of a welcome. What should we care how bitter
that potion is that brings us health?

ELLICOTT, "This section is peculiar to the Chronicle, and none has excited more
scepticism among modern critics. The progress of cuneiform research, however, has
proved the perfect possibility of the facts most disputed, viz., the captivity and
subsequent restoration of Manasseh.

Verse 12
(12) When he was in affliction.—See this phrase in 2 Chronicles 28:22.

He besought.—Literally, stroked the face, a curious realistic phrase occurring in

Exodus 32:11.

The God of his fathers.—Whom he had forsaken for the gods of aliens. Some MSS.,
and the Syriac, Targum, and Arabic insert “Jehovah” before this phrase.

PARKER, "Then came the inevitable cry:—

"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" ( 2 Chronicles 33:12-13)

A wonderful word is that which is rendered "besought the Lord his God": literally,
stroked his face; petted, caressed the Lord his God. What a fool the sinner always
Isaiah , and to what abject humiliation he is brought. How riotous for a time! but
gravitation is against him. The uplifted arm cannot wield the axe long; it fights
against the geometry of the universe. God is against the wicked man. For a time
Manasseh appears to succeed, but the time is short. So let the lesson abide with us.
Have we set ourselves against the Lord and against his anointed? How irrational,
how disproportionate the battle! Will not the angels weep to see how the battle is set
in array—on the one hand omnipotence, on the other a cloud of insects? Might not
the universe cry unto God not to strike? He does not want to deliver the blow; he
says judgment is his strange work, and mercy is his peculiar delight; he says, "Turn
ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked." God has no pleasure in death of any kind. In him is life, and
he would have the universe live a truly harmonic, pure, beautiful, devout life; but
his spirit, as has just been quoted, shall not always strive with men. Why should it?
Who, then, will obey the Lord at the point of remonstrance and not go forward to
the point of defiance? We are all under the importunate entreaty of God. How
wondrous is his mercy, how patient his love! "Behold, I stand at the door and
knock: if any man open the door, I will come in." "If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." He would
continue in some such words as these:—Beware lest the enemy come upon you
unexpectedly, lest a hook be put in your nostrils, and you be led away into Babylon,
into perdition. Let it be graven as with a pen of iron upon a rock that no man can
resist God successfully. Man may have his own way, but the end thereof will be
death. We can refuse to pray, but we must bear the consequences,—as we can refuse
to sow seed. We can say at seed-time, o, not one handful of seed shall be sown.
Man is at perfect liberty to say that, but he shall have nothing in harvest and he
shall beg in winter.

GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 33:12-13) The remarkable repentance of Manasseh.

ow when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received
his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his
kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

a. When he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God: Manasseh was not the
first one (and not the last) to turn back to God after a severe season of affliction. It
has been said that God speaks to us in our pleasures and he shouts to us in our
pains. Manasseh finally listened to God’s shouting through affliction.

i. “The Assyrians were notoriously a fierce people, and Manasseh, having provoked
them, felt all the degradation, scorn, and cruelty which anger could invent. He who
had trusted idols was made a slave to an idolatrous people; he who had shed blood
very much was now in daily jeopardy of the shedding of his own; he who had
insulted the Lord must now be continually insulted himself.” (Spurgeon)

b. And humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers: The word humbled
reminds us that the essence of Manasseh’s sin was pride. The phrase God of his
fathers reminds us that Manasseh returned to the godly heritage he received from
his father Hezekiah.

i. This is a wonderful example of the principle, Train up a child in the way he should
go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). Manasseh was
raised by a godly father, yet he lived in defiance of his father’s faith for most of his
life. evertheless, at the end of his days he truly repented and served God.

c. He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to
Jerusalem into his kingdom: God graciously restored the late-repenting Manasseh.
This gracious response to Manasseh was the final step in his return to the LORD
(Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God).

i. “He was convinced by his own experience of God’s power, justice, and goodness,
that Jehovah alone was the true God, and not those idols which he had worshipped,
by which he had received great hurt, and no good.” (Poole)

ii. “Manasseh’s repentance was evidently the chief subject in the mind of the
chronicler, and while his sins are painted faithfully and revealed in all their
hideousness, all becomes but background which flings into relief Manasseh’s
genuine penitence and the ready and gracious response to God.” (Morgan)

iii. In his sermon, The Old Testament “Prodigal,” Spurgeon imagined what it would
be like for the remnant of believers in Jerusalem to hear that Manasseh was
returning from Babylon. They had a brief pause in the persecution they had
suffered from the evil king, and at least a slow-down in the official promotion of
idolatry. ow to hear he was coming back must have drove them to their knees,
asking God to have mercy on them once again. Imagine their surprise when they
found that King Manasseh returned a repentant, converted man!
iv. “Oh! I do not wonder at Manasseh’s sin one half so much as I wonder at God’s
mercy.” (Spurgeon)

BI, "And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God.
Manasseh’s wickedness and penitence
I. Manssseh’s career in crime.
II. His return to and acceptance of God.
III. The gracious results of his penitence. Improvement.
1. The lamentable wickedness and duplicity of the human heart.
2. The freeness, fulness, and efficacy of Divine grace.
3. The consequences of salvation are reformation and obedience. (T.B. Baker.)

Manasseh
Manasseh is an eminent instance of the power, richness, and freeness of the Divine
mercy. Observe—
I. The sins which he committed.
1. Their contributory cause. His early freedom from restraint, his coming to supreme
power when only twelve years of age.
2. Their special nature. The catalogue is appalling.
3. Their aggravated nature.
(1) They were committed in defiance of religious education, and of the
admonitions and example of his father.
(2) They were of more than common enormity.
(3) They were productive of more than ordinary evil to others.
(4) They were in defiance of the expostulations of the prophets (verse 10).
II. The repentance which he exercised.
1. Its cause.
(1) Its more remote cause was probably his religious education. The case of
Manasseh is not discouraging to training children in the way they should go.
(2) The immediate cause was affliction.
2. Its nature.
(1) Deep conviction of sin.
(2) Deep contrition.
(3) Earnest prayer.
(4) Reformation of life.
III. The mercies which manasseh received.
1. Temporal nature.
2. Spiritual He was brought to the spiritual knowledge of the God of his salvation.
“Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.” This knowledge led him to fear,
trust, love, and obey. This obedience was accompanied by the deepest self-
renunciation and abasement to the end of his life. Lessons.
1. To those who are insensible of their sinfulness.
2. To those who are ready to sink into despair under the weight of their sinfulness.
3. To those who are disposed to presume on the mercy of God. Manasseh’s son
Amon was quickly cut off in the midst of his sins (verses 21-28). He seems to be a
beacon set up close by the side of his penitent and accepted father, to warn all
persons against presuming on the mercy manifested to Manasseh. (Homilist.)

Manasseh’s repentance
I. His character as a sinner.
1. He was a notorious sinner.
2. He was not a hopeless sinner.
II. His conduct as a penitent.
1. The period of his repentance is specified. “When he was in affliction.”
2. The nature of his repentance is described.
(1) Deep humility.
(2) Fervent prayer. These invariably distinguish the conduct of every true
penitent (Jer_31:18-19; Luk_18:13; Act_9:11).
III. His salvation as a believer.
1. He obtained the pardoning mercy of God.
2. He received a saving knowledge of God (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Manasseh humbled
I. The benefit of afflictions in bringing the sinner to a true sense of his condition and
converting him to God.
II. The mercy of God in so bringing and receiving him.
III. The remaining and lasting portion of the evil of sin, even after the individual is
pardoned. In the Second Book of Kings it is repeatedly declared that Judah was
destroyed on account of the sons of Manasseh.
1. A man looks back with sorrow and contrite concern upon the follies and sins of his
youth; but what of his companions in guilt? Some, perhaps, whom he seduced into
sin, and many whom he encouraged and confirmed in sin.
2. Some writers have employed their pens in the odious cause of immorality and
 irreligion. Such persons have lamented their errors; but the publication has done its
work; the poison has been circulated, and the corruption is incurable. (J. Slade, M.
A.)

The conversion of Manasseh

I. That early advantages may be succeeded by complicated sin.
II. That sin is frequently the cause of severe affliction.
III. That affliction, when sanctified, exalts to prayer, and promotes humiliation.
IV. That prayer and humiliation are always attended with distinguished blessings, and
produce valuable effects.
V. From the whole.
1. The patience of God.
2. The sovereignty of God.
3. The wisdom of God in adapting means to the conversion of men.
4. The mercy of God in saving the chief of sinners. (S. Kidd.)

The repentance of Manasseh

We will connect the important change which took place in the mind of Manasseh—
I. With his early advantages. John Newton states somewhere, “When I was in the
deepest misery, and when I was committing the most atrocious sin, I always seemed to
feel the hand of my sainted mother pressing my head.”
II. With the afflictions by which it was produced.
III. With the effects which it unfolded.
IV. With the sovereignty of Divine Grace. (A. E. Farrar.)

Manasseh brought to repentance

I. His life of sin.
1. It was in direct contrast to the good reign of his father.
2. His sin involved many in guilt. He “made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
to err.”
3. He was not moved by the sight of the same wickedness in those whom he despised
(2Ki_21:9).
4. His sin was not checked by God’s punishment of others. The heathen had been
driven out from the land because of their wickedness. Judah occupied their place and
adopted their vice.
II. The life of manasseh under God’s chastisement. We learn from recently discovered
Assyrian inscriptions what is meant by “among the thorns.” The word thus translated
means a hook, which was put through the under lips of captives. The depths of
Manasseh’s degradation may be imagined. Yet it was sent in mercy to turn him to God.
III. His repentance and restoration.
IV. His re-establishment of the worship of God. Lessons.
1. Never to be ashamed of repentance.
2. We see the meaning of God’s chastisements.
3. The power of a single man when he has turned from sin to God.
4. The necessity of solitary communion with God.
5. The patient love of God. (Monday Club Sermons.)

The conversion of an aged transgressor

I. Let us attend to the circumstances which by the grace of God led to the conversion of
Manasseh.
1. Affliction.
2. Solitary reflection.
3. Prayer.
II. Consider next how the grace of God operated in Manasseh.
1. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2. He was made to know that the Lord was God.
3. He brought forth fruits meet for repentance.
III. The circumstances which made his conversion peculiarly striking.
1. It was the conversion of an atrocious sinner.
2. Of an aged sinner.
3. It took place at a distance from the ordinary means of grace. (H. Belfrage, D.D.)

Manasseh
God contents not Himself to have left on record in His word declarations and promises
of grace as beacons of hope to the sinner. We have examples also of His acts of grace.
Abounding iniquity, and more abounding grace, are the special features presented to us
in this history of Manasseh.
I. Abounding iniquity marked Manasseh’s course.
1. He was the son of Hezekiah the servant of the Lord. We place this foremost as an
aggravation of his sin, that in spite of a father’s example he cast off the fear of the
Lord and sinned with a high hand against his God. That father, indeed, was early
taken from him, for Manasseh was but twelve years old when he began to reign; still,
the memory of Hezekiah’s piety could not have been utterly forgotten. Too marked
had been the interposition of Jehovah in that father’s deliverance from Assyria and
in his recovery from sickness for the report to have passed away. But Manasseh
 heeded not these things; “he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to
provoke Him to anger.”
2. Manasseh added to his disregard of a godly parent this iniquity also, that he led
his children unto sin,” he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of
the son of Hinnom.” . . . Some godless parents have shown a happy inconsistency, in
that whilst pursuing themselves that path “whose end is destruction,” they have
desired for their offspring that they should seek the Lord. The force of example,
indeed, meeting as it does with “the evil that is bound up in the heart of a child,” will
in such eases often prove too powerful to be withstood. But Manasseh took no such
course, but dedicated his children as well as himself to the service of the false gods.
Alas, the reproducing power of evil! Thou that art a citizen of the world, intent on
gain or pleasure, can it be expected but that thy children should walk after thee in the
same destructive road?
3. Manasseh bade defiance to Jehovah in His own sanctuary. Not only did he build
again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, but “he set a carved
image,” the idol which he had made, “in the house of God.” It was not enough that he
himself should bow down to idols, and that his children should also do them
homage, but with yet more prsumptuous sin he declared himself, in the face of all
Israel, an idolater, and desecrated to this base end the very temple, of which the Lord
had said, “My Name shall be there.” It is the very character of Jehovah that He is “a
jealous God,” “His glory will He not give to another.”
4. But further, Manasseh “shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled
Jerusalem from one end to another.” The faithful who warned him were doubtless
the ones especially sacrificed to his vengeance, and it is supposed that Isaiah suffered
death under this fearful persecutor of the Church of God. For the wickedness of
Manasseh could not plead this even in palliation that he was unrebuked: “The Lord
spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken.” What depth of
malignity is there in the unchanged soul! what pollutions! what ingratitude! what
rebellion! Were it not for the restraining grace of God, what a scene of bloodshed and
of all enormity would this earth be!
II. More abounding still the grace of God.
1. In chastisement the first faint streak of mercy manifested itself. The voice of plenty
had spoken to him in vain, the voice of warning had been treated with neglect, but
now the voice of correction speaks in tones not to be gainsaid. The alarm of war is
heard in that guilty court.
2. His deep penitence bore witness to the workings of grace. He humbled himself
greatly before the God of his fathers That word “greatly” speaks much as recorded by
the Spirit of truth. As with the gospel itself, so with the chastenings of the Lord, they
are either “a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.”
3. The voice of prayer went up from that prison-house, “He besought the Lord . . .
and prayed unto Him.” Tears, many it may be, fell before one prayer was uttered.
4. Abounding grace, shone forth, too, in the answer granted to prayer. “God was
intreated of him.” He heard his cry, and hope sprung up in his downcast soul.
5. The workings of God’s grace were further evidenced by the fruits of faith in life
according to godliness. Manasseh restored to his kingdom, has now but one object in
view, the glory of God, and that object he consistently pursued. The idol is east out
from the temple, and the altars of the false gods out of the city, and the people are
 commanded “to serve the Lord God of Israel.” He turned not aside from his purpose
to bring back to Jehovah those whom formerly he had led away to sin; and this godly
course he pursued unto the end.
Lessons.
1. The first is, that there is a fulness of grace in God as our reconciled Father in
Christ Jesus beyond the power of heart to conceive, or of tongue to utter.
2. But this history also reminds us of the dreadful nature of sin. Deep are its furrows,
lasting its effects. Manasseh is pardoned, but,could he repair the evil he had done?
(F. Storr, M.A.)

Manasseh
We shall consider Manasseh—
I. As a sinner.
1. He sinned against light, against a pious education and early training. It is a
notorious fact that when men do go wrong after a good training they are the worst
men in the world. The murder of John Williams at Erromanga was brought about by
the evil doings of a trader who had gone to the island, and who was also the son of a
missionary. He had become reckless in his habits, and treated the islanders with
such barbarity and cruelty that they revenged his conduct upon the next white man
who put his foot upon their shore.
2. He was a very bold sinner.
3. He had the power of leading others to a very large extent astray.
II. As an unbeliever. He did not believe that Jehovah was God alone.
1. The unlimited power that Manasseh possessed had a great tendency to make him a
disbeliever.
2. His pride was another cause.
3. Another cause was his love for sin.
III. As a convert. He believed in God—
1. Because God had answered his prayer.
2. Because He had forgiven his sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Manasseh’s repentance
Manasseh is unique alike in extreme wickedness, sincere penitence, and thorough
reformation. The reformation of Julius Caesar or of our own Henry V, or to take a
different class of instance, the conversion of Paul, was nothing compared to the
conversion of Manasseh. It was as though Herod the Great or Caesar Borgia had been
checked midway in a career of cruelty and vice, and had thenceforward lived pure and
holy lives, glorifying God by ministering to their fellow-men. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
He was intreated of him.
Pardon for the greatest guilt
The story of Manasseh is a very valuable one. I feel sure of this, because you meet with it
twice in the Word of God. God would have us again and again dwell upon such wonders
of sovereign grace as Manasseh presents to us.
I. Let us examine the case before us.
1. Manasseh was the son of a good father.
2. He undid all his father’s actions.
3. He served false gods.
4. He desecrated the Lord’s courts. There are some to-day who do this; for they
make even their attendance at the house of God to be an occasion for evil.
5. He dedicated his children to the devil. Nobody here will dedicate his children to
the devil, surely; yet many do. Have I not seen a father dedicate his boy to the devil,
as he has encouraged him to drink? And do not many in this great city, dedicate their
children to the devil by allowing them to go into all kinds of licentiousness, until they
become the victims of vice?
6. He fraternised with the devil, by seeking after all kinds of supernatural witcheries
and wizardries.
7. He led others astray.
8. He persecuted the people of God. It is said,—we do not know whether it was so or
not,—but it is highly probable, that he caused Isaiah to be cut asunder with a wooden
saw.
9. In short, Manasseh was a compound of every sort of wickedness.
10. Notwithstanding all this Manasseh was pardoned. How it came about?
(1) Being in great trouble, he turned to Jehovah his God.
(2) He humbled himself greatly.
(3) He prayed.
II. Let us consider why there should be others like Manasseh. Judging from many
probabilities, that God will save other great sinners as He saved Manasseh.
1. Because He speaks to such great sinners and commands them to repent (Isa_1:16-
18). Because of the great promises God has given to great sinners.
3. Because of the nature of God.
4. From what I know of the value of the blood of Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.—

Forgiveness and the knowledge of God
Men first begin to know God when they are forgiven. What did the prodigal know about
his father when he asked for the portion of goods that fell to him, or while he was
wasting his substance in riotous living? Because love and forgiveness are more strange
and unearthly than rebuke and chastisement, the sinner is humbled by pardon far more
than by punishment; and his trembling submission to the righteous Judge deepens into
profounder reverence and awe for the God who can forgive, who is superior to all
vindictiveness, whose infinite resources enable Him to blot out the guilt, to cancel the
penalty, and annul the consequences of sin. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)

13 And when he prayed to him, the Lord was

moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so
he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his
kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is
God.

CLARKE, "And prayed unto him - “While he was thus praying, all the presiding
angels went away to the gates of prayer in heaven; and shut all the gates of prayer, and
all the windows and apertures in heaven, lest that his prayer should be heard.
Immediately the compassions of the Creator of the world were moved, whose right hand
is stretched out to receive sinners, who are converted to his fear, and break their hearts’
concupiscence by repentance. He made therefore a window and opening in heaven,
under the throne of his glory; and having heard his prayer, he favourably received his
supplication. And when his Word had shaken the earth, the mule was burst and he
escaped. Then the Spirit went out from between the wings of the cherubim; by which,
being inspired through the decree of the Word of the Lord, he returned to his kingdom
in Jerusalem. And then Manasseh knew that it was the Lord God who had done these
miracles and signs; and he turned to the Lord with his whole heart, left all his idols, and
never served them more.” This long addition gives the Jewish account of those
particulars which the sacred writer has passed by: it is curious, though in some sort
trifling. The gates of prayer may be considered childish; but in most of those things the
ancient rabbins purposely hid deep and important meanings.

GILL, "And prayed unto him,.... To have mercy on him, and forgive him his sins:

and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication; and granted his
request, showed favour to him, and forgave him his sins:
and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom; so wrought upon the
heart of the king of Assyria, as to give him his liberty, and restore him to his dominions;
it is very probable his captivity was not long; for, being soon brought by his affliction to a
sense and confession of his sins, by the overruling providence of God, he was quickly
released:

then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God; and not the idols he had served;
that he was a holy God, and hated sin, and a just God in afflicting him for it, and
gracious and merciful in forgiving his sins, and bringing him out of his troubles.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:13. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God —
He was convinced, by his own experience, of God’s power, justice, and goodness;
that Jehovah alone was the true God, and not those idols which he had worshipped,
by which he had received great hurt and no good. He might have known this at a
less expense, if he would have given due attention and credit to the word written and
preached: but it was better to pay thus dear for the knowledge of God, than perish
in ignorance and unbelief.

COKE, "2 Chronicles 33:13. And prayed unto him— We have a prayer which, it is
pretended, he made in prison. The church does not receive it as canonical; but it has
a place among the apocryphal pieces, and in our collection stands before the book of
Maccabees. The Greek church has received it into its book of prayers; and it is there
sometimes used as a devout form, and as containing nothing deserving of censure.

ELLICOTT, "(13) He was intreated of him.—1 Chronicles 5:20.

And brought him again to Jerusalem.—The Assyrian monarch after a time saw fit
to restore Manasseh to his throne as a vassal king. The case is exactly parallel to
that of the Egyptian king ikû (echo I.), who was bound hand and foot, and sent
to ineveh; after which Assurbanipal extended his clemency to his captive, and
restored him to his former state in his own country. (See Schrader, p. 371.)

Then.—And.

That the Lord he was God.—That Jehovah was the true God. (Comp. 1 Kings 18:39,
where the same Hebrew words occur twice over.)

PULPIT, "And prayed unto him. The apocryphal "Prayer of Manasses" is not at all
likely to be authentic. And brought him again to Jerusalem. The Targum gives
many mythical tales as to how this deliverance was effected. Then Manasseh knew
that. Did he not know, well know, before? So far as the mode of expression may in
any degree warrant such a stretch of charity, what an idea it gives of the force with
which grossest error will captivate even the taught; and with what force of a furious
wind did the contaminating influence of idolatries all around sweep betimes before
them—these very kings and chief men of Judah and Jerusalem! It is evident that
there was always among the people a "remnant" who kept the faith. See here, e.g;
the reference to the "innocent blood" shed in Jerusalem, no doubt bleed of those
who would not consent to idolatry—blood of noble martyrs.

14 Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City

of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as
far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling
the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He
stationed military commanders in all the fortified
cities in Judah.

BARES, "Rather, “he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west of Gihon-
in-the-valley.” The wall intended seems to have been that toward the northeast, which
ran from the vicinity of the modern Damascus gate across the valley of Gihon, to the
“fish-gate” at the northeast corner of the “city of David.”
We may gather from this verse that, late in his reign, Manasseh revolted from the
Assyrians, and made preparations to resist them if they should attack him. Assyria began
to decline in power about 647 B.C., and from that time her outlying provinces would
naturally begin to fall off. Manasseh reigned until 642 B.C.

CLARKE, "He built a wall - This was probably a weak place that he fortified; or a
part of the wall which the Assyrians had broken down, which he now rebuilt.

GILL, "Now after this he built a wall without the city of David,.... Which
perhaps had been broken down by the Assyrian army, when it came and took him;
Vitringa (l) thinks this is the wall of the pool of Siloah, Neh_3:15 which seems to be the
first and oldest wall, as Josephus (m); for that turning to the north bent towards the
pool of Siloam; an Arabic writer (n) calls it the southern wall:

on the west side of Gihon; on the west side of the city, towards Gihon; for that was to
the west of it, 2Ch_32:30,
in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate; through which the fish were
brought from Joppa, and where, according to the Targum, they were sold:

and compassed about Ophel; the eastern part of Mount Zion; some say it was the
holy of holies, 2Ch_27:3,

and raised it up a very great height; built the wall very high there:

and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah; this he did to put his
kingdom in a posture of defence, should it be attacked by the Assyrian army again.

JAMISO, "he built a wall without the city ... on the west side of Gihon ...
even to the entering in at the fish gate — “The well-ascertained position of the fish
gate, shows that the valley of Gihon could be no other than that leading northwest of
Damascus gate, and gently descending southward, uniting with the Tyropoeon at the
northeast corner of Mount Zion, where the latter turns at right angles and runs towards
Siloam. The wall thus built by Manasseh on the west side of the valley of Gihon, would
extend from the vicinity of the northeast corner of the wall of Zion in a northerly
direction, until it crossed over the valley to form a junction with the outer wall at the
trench of Antonia, precisely in the quarter where the temple would be most easily
assailed” [Barclay].

K&D, "After his return, Manasseh took measures to secure his kingdom, and
especially the capital, against hostile attacks. “He built an outer wall of the city of David
westward towards Gihon in the valley, and in the direction of the fish-gate; and he
surrounded the Ophel, and made it very high.” The words ‫ּומה ִהיצּונָ ה‬
ָ ‫( ח‬without the article)
point to the building of a new wall. But since it has been already recorded of Hezekiah, in
2Ch_32:5, that he built “the other wall without,” all modern expositors, even Arnold in
Herz.'s Realenc. xviii. S. 634, assume the identity of the two walls, and understand ‫ וַ >ִ ֶבן‬of
the completion and heightening of that “other wall” of which it is said ‫ ְמאּד‬:ָ‫יהה‬
ֶ ִ ְ‫וַ >ַ ג‬, and
which shut in Zion from the lower city to the north. In that case, of course, we must
make the correction ‫ּומה‬ ָ ‫הח‬.
ַ The words “westward towards Gihon in the valley, and ‫ב ָלבּוא‬,
in the direction to (towards) the fish-gate,” are then to be taken as describing the course
of this wall from its centre, first towards the west, and then towards the east. For the
valley of Gihon lay, in all probability, outside of the western city gate, which occupied the
place of the present Jaffa gate. But the fish-gate was, according to Neh_3:3, at the east
end of this wall, at no great distance from the tower on the north-east corner. The valley
(‫)ה@ַ ַהל‬
ַ is a hollow between the upper city (Zion) and the lower (Acra), probably the
beginning of the valley, which at its south-eastern opening, between Zion and Moriah, is
called Tyropoion in Josephus. The words, “he surrounded the Ophel,” sc. with a wall, are
not to be connected with the preceding clauses, as Berth. connects them, translating, “he
carried the wall from the north-east corner farther to the south, and then round the
Ophel;” for “between the north-east corner and the Ophel wall lay the whole east wall of
the city, as far as to the south-east corner of the temple area, which yet cannot be
regarded as a continuation of the wall to the Ophel wall” (Arnold, loc. cit.). Jotham had
already built a great deal at the Ophel wall (2Ch_27:3). Manasseh must therefore only
have strengthened it, and increased its height. On the words ‫ וַ >ָ ֶשׂם שׂ‬cf. 2Ch_32:6 and
2Ch_17:2.

BESO "2 Chronicles 33:14. After this he built a wall without the city of David —
He repaired and strengthened that wall which Hezekiah had built, (2 Chronicles
32:5,) and which, possibly, the king of Assyria, or of Babylon rather, when he last
took Jerusalem, had caused to be thrown down, either wholly or in part. On the
west side of Gihon — On the west side of the city of David, to which Hezekiah had
brought the watercourse down, mentioned 2 Chronicles 32:30, into the great pool
which he had made to receive it: and possibly this wall was built to secure the free
use of it to the citizens, when they should be distressed or besieged by an enemy.

ELLICOTT, "(14) ow after this . . . valley.—Rather, And afterwards he built an

outer wall to the city of David westward unto Gihon in the ravine. Manasseh
completed the wall begun by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:5). This highly
circumstantial account of the public works undertaken by Manasseh after his
restoration, is utterly unlike fiction, and almost compels the assumption of a real
historical source, no longer extant, from which the whole section has been derived.

Even to the entering in of the fish gate.—The fish-gate lay near the north-east
corner of the lower city (ehemiah 3:3). The direction of the outer wall is described
first westward, and then eastward.

And compassed about Ophel.—And surrounded the Ophel (mound); seil., with the
wall, which he carried on from the north-east to the south-east. Uzziah and Jotham
had already worked upon these fortifications (2 Chronicles 26:9; 2 Chronicles 27:3).
Manasseh now finished them, “raising them up to a very great height.”

Raised it—i.e., the outer wall.

And put captains of war.—(Comp. 2 Chronicles 17:2; 2 Chronicles 32:6.) Literally,

captains of an army ( sârê chayil).

Of Judah.—Heb., in Judah. Some MSS. and the Vulgale read as the Authorised
Version.

GUZIK, "3. (2 Chronicles 33:14-17) The late deeds of Manasseh.

After this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of Gihon, in the
valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; and it enclosed Ophel, and he raised
it to a very great height. Then he put military captains in all the fortified cities of
Judah. He took away the foreign gods and the idol from 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 he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the LORD,
sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve
the LORD God of Israel. evertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places,
but only to the LORD their God.

a. After this he built a wall: Before he was humbled and repentant, Manasseh didn’t
care very much for the defense of Judah and Jerusalem. ow, with a more godly
perspective, he cared deeply about the security of God’s people and the Kingdom of
Judah.

i. “This was probably a weak place that he fortified; or a part of the wall which the
Assyrians had broken down, which he now rebuilt.” (Clarke)

b. He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD: Before
he was humbled and repentant, Manasseh promoted the worship of idols. ow, he
destroyed idols and promoted the worship of the true God of Israel alone; he even
commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

i. “Manasseh’s religious reforms represented a direct reversal of earlier policies (2

Chronicles 33:2-9), since each of the items removed in 2 Chronicles 33:15 is
mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:3; 2 Chronicles 33:7.” (Selman)

ii. “Turn to Him with brokenness of soul, and He will not only forgive, but bring
you out again; and give you, as He did Manasseh, an opportunity of undoing some
of those evil things which have marred your past.” (Meyer)

c. evertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the LORD
their God: This reminds us of the distinction between two different kinds of high
places. Some were altars to pagan idols; others were unauthorized altars to the true
God. Manasseh stopped all the pagan worship in Judah, but unauthorized (that is,
outside the temple) worship of the God of Israel continued.

i. “Half a century of paganism could not be counteracted by half-a-dozen years of

reform.” (Payne)

ii. “While repentance of personal sin brings ready forgiveness, the influence of the
sin is terribly likely to abide.” (Morgan)

POOLE, "He built a wall; he repaired and strengthened that wall which Hezekiah
had built, 2 Chronicles 32:5, and which possibly the king of Assyria, when he last
took Jerusalem, had caused to be thrown down, either wholly or in part.

On the west side of Gihon; on the west side of the city of David, to which Hezekiah
had brought this water-course down, 2 Chronicles 32:30, into the great pool which
he had made to receive it; and possibly this wall was built to secure the free use of it
to the citizens when they should be distressed or besieged by an enemy.

Compassed about Ophel with a wall. Of Ophel see before, 2 Chronicles 27:3.

PULPIT, "The wall without; or, Revised Version, the outer wall, is probably one
with that of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:5), which now Manasseh repairs, or rebuilds,
and perhaps lengthens as well as heightens. The fish gate (ehemiah 13:16), left on
the north of Jerusalem, and opened on the main road for the sea. The wall traversed
the north and east sides to Ophel, "on the wall" of which, it is said (2 Chronicles
27:3), "Jotham built much." Hezekiah also built much there, and now Manasseh
raised it up a very great height.

15 He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the

image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all
the altars he had built on the temple hill and in
Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city.

CLARKE, "He took away the strange gods - He appears to have done every
thing in his power to destroy the idolatry which he had set up, and to restore the pure
worship of the true God. His repentance brought forth fruits meet for repentance. How
long he was in captivity, and when or by whom he was delivered, we know not. The fact
of his restoration is asserted; and we believe it on Divine testimony.

GILL, "And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of
the Lord,.... Which he had set there, 2Ch_33:7.

and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord,
and in Jerusalem; see 2Ch_33:4,

and cast them out of the city; perhaps into the brook Kidron; all this he did to show
the sincerity of his repentance for his idolatry, and his abhorrence of it.
 HERY 15-16, "IV. The fruits meet for repentance which he brought forth after his
return to his own land, 2Ch_33:15, 2Ch_33:16. 1. He turned from his sins. He took
away the strange gods, the images of them, and that idol (whatever it was) which he
had set up with so much solemnity in the house of the Lord, as if it had been master of
that house. He cast out all the idolatrous altars that were in the mount of the house and
in Jerusalem, as detestable things. Now (we hope) he loathed them as much as ever he
had loved them, and said to them, Get you hence, Isa_30:22. “What have I to do any
more with idols? I have had enough of them.” 2. He returned to his duty; for he repaired
the altar of the Lord, which had either been abused and broken down by some of the
idolatrous priests, or, at least, neglected and gone out of repair. He sacrificed thereon
peace-offerings to implore God's favour, and thank-offerings to praise him for his
deliverance. Nay, he now used his power to reform his people, as before he had abused it
to corrupt them: He commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Note, Those
that truly repent of their sins will not only return to God themselves, but will do all they
can to recover those that have by their example been seduced and drawn away from God;
else they do not thoroughly (as they ought) undo what they have done amiss, nor make
the plaster as wide as the wound. We find that he prevailed to bring them off from their
false gods, but not from their high places, 2Ch_33:17. They still sacrificed in them, yet
to the Lord their God only; Manasseh could not carry the reformation so far as he had
carried the corruption. It is an easy thing to debauch men's manners, but not so easy to
reform them again.

K&D 15-17, "And he also removed the idols and the statues from the house of the
Lord, i.e., out of the two courts of the temple (2Ch_33:5), and caused the idolatrous
altars which he had built upon the temple hill and in Jerusalem to be cast forth from the
city. In 2Ch_33:16, instead of the Keth. ‫ויבן‬, he built (restored) the altar of Jahve, many
manuscripts and ancient editions read ‫ויכן‬, he prepared the altar of Jahve. This variation
has perhaps originated in an orthographical error, and it is difficult to decide which
reading is the original. The Vulg. translates ‫ יבן‬restauravit. That Manasseh first removed
the altar of Jahve from the court, and then restored it, as Ewald thinks, is not very
probable; for in that case its removal would certainly have been mentioned in 2Ch_33:3.
Upon the altar thus restored Manasseh then offered thank-offerings and peace-offerings,
and also commanded his subjects to worship Jahve the God of Israel. But the people still
sacrificed on the high places, yet unto Jahve their God.
“As to the carrying away of Manasseh,” says Bertheau, “we have no further
information in the Old Testament, which is not surprising, seeing that in the books of
Kings there is only a very short notice as to the long period embraced by Manasseh's
reign and that of Amon.” He therefore, with Ew., Mov., Then., and others, does not
scruple to recognise this fact as historical, and to place his captivity in the time of the
Assyrian king Esarhaddon. He however believes, with Ew. and Mov., that the statements
as to the removal of idols and altars from the temple and Jerusalem (2Ch_33:15) is
inconsistent with the older account in 2Ki_23:6 and 2Ki_23:12, the clear statements of
which, moreover, our historian does not communicate in 2Ch_34:3. For even if the
Astarte removed by Josiah need not have been the ‫ ַה ֶ ֶמל‬of our chapter, yet it is expressly
said that only by Josiah were the altars built by Manasseh broken down; yet we would
scarcely be justified in supposing that Manasseh removed them, perhaps only laid them
aside, that Amon again set them up in the courts, and that Josiah at length destroyed
them. It does not thence follow, of course, that the narrative of the repentance and
conversion of Manasseh rests upon no historic foundation; rather it is just such a
narrative as would be supplemented by accounts of the destruction of the idolatrous
altars and the statue of Astarte: for that might be regarded as the necessary result of the
conversion, without any definite statement being made.
(Note: From this supposed contradiction, R. H. Graf, “die Gefangenschaft u.
Bekehrung Manasse's, 2 Chron 33,” in the Theol. Studien u. Kritiken, 1859, iii. S.
467ff., and in the book, die geschichtl. Literatur A. Test. 1866, 2 Abhdl., following
Gramberg, and with the concurrence of H. Nöldeke, die alttestl. Literatur in einer
Reihe von Aufsätzen dargestellt (1868), S. 59f., has drawn the conclusion that the
accounts given in the Chronicle, not only of Manasseh's conversion, but also of his
being led captive to Babylon, are merely fictions, or inventions - poetical popular
myths. On the other hand, E. Gerlach, in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1861, iii. S. 503ff.,
has shown the superficiality of Graf's essay, and defended effectively the historical
character of both narratives.)
Against this we have the following objections to make: Can we well imagine
repentance and conversion on Manasseh's part without the removal of the abominations
of idolatry, at least from the temple of the Lord? And why should we not suppose that
Manasseh removed the idol altars from the temple and Jerusalem, but that Amon, who
did evil as did his father Manasseh, and sacrificed to all the images which he had made
(2Ki_21:21.; 2Ch_33:22), again set them up in the courts of the temple, and placed the
statue again in the temple, and that only by Josiah were they destroyed? In 2Ki_23:6 it
is indeed said, Josiah removed the Asherah from the house of Jahve, took it forth from
Jerusalem, and burnt it, and ground it to dust in the valley of Kidron; and in 2Ch_33:12,
that Josiah beat down and brake the altars which Manasseh had made in both courts of
the house of Jahve, and threw the dust of them into Kidron. But where do we find it
written in the Chronicle that Manasseh, after his return from Babylon, beat down, and
brake, and ground to powder the ‫ ֶס ֶמל‬in the house of Jahve, and the altars on the temple
mount and in Jerusalem? In 2Ch_33:15 we only find it stated that he cast these things
forth from the city (‫חוּצֽה ָל ִעיר‬
ָ :ְ‫)יַ ְשׁ ֵלך‬. Is casting out of the city identical with breaking down
and crushing, as Bertheau and others assume? The author of the Chronicle, at least, can
distinguish between removing (‫)ה ִסיר‬ ֵ and breaking down and crushing. Cf. 2Ch_15:16,
where ‫ ֵה ִסיר‬is sharply distinguished from ‫ ַרת‬9ָ and ‫;ה ַדק‬
ֵ further, 2Ch_31:1 and 2Ch_34:4,
where the verbs ‫שׁ ֵר‬,
ִ :ַ‫ע‬Eֵ ִ, and ‫ ֵה ַדק‬are used of the breaking in pieces and destroying of
images and altars by Hezekiah and Josiah. He uses none of these verbs of the removal of
the images and altars by Manasseh, but only ‫ וַ יָ ַסר‬and ‫חוּצֽה ָל ִעיר‬
ָ :ְ‫( וַ יַ ְשׁ ֵלך‬2Ch_33:15). If we
take the words exactly as they stand in the text of the Bible, every appearance of
contradiction disappears.
(Note: In this matter Movers too has gone very superficially to work, remarking in
support of the contradiction (bibl. Chron. S. 328): “If Manasseh was so zealous a
penitent, it may be asked, Would he not have destroyed all idolatrous images,
according to the Mosaic law, as the Chronicle itself, 2Ch_33:15 (cf. 2Ch_29:17; 2Ch_
15:16; 2Ki_23:12), sufficiently shows? Had idolatry ceased in all Judah in the last
year of Manasseh's reign, as is stated in 2Ch_33:17, could it, during the two years'
reign of his son Amon, have spread abroad in a manner hitherto unheard of in
Jewish history, as it is portrayed under Josiah, 2Ki_23:4.?” But where is it stated in
the Chronicle that Manasseh was so zealous a penitent as to have destroyed the
images according to the Mosaic law? Not even the restoration of the Jahve-worship
 according to the provisions of the law is once spoken of, as it is in the case of
Hezekiah and of Josiah (cf. 2Ch_30:5 and 2Ch_30:16, 2Ch_34:21; 2Ch_35:26); and
does it follow from the fact that Judah, in consequence of Manasseh's command to
serve Jahve, still sacrificed in the high places, yet to Jahve, that under Manasseh
idolatry ceased throughout Judah?)
From what is said in the Chronicle of Manasseh's deeds, we cannot conclude that he
was fully converted to the Lord. That Manasseh prayed to Jahve in his imprisonment,
and by his deliverance from it and his restoration to Jerusalem came to see that Jahve
was God (‫)האלהים‬, who must be worshipped in His temple at Jerusalem, and that he
consequently removed the images and the idolatrous altars from the temple and the city,
and cast them forth-these facts do not prove a thorough conversion, much less “that he
made amends for his sin by repentance and improvement” (Mov.), but merely attest the
restoration of the Jahve-worship in the temple, which had previously been completely
suspended. But the idolatry in Jerusalem and Judah was not thereby extirpated; it was
only in so far repressed that it could not longer be publicly practised in the temple. Still
less was idolatry rooted out of the hearts of the people by the command that the people
were to worship Jahve, the God of Israel. There is not a single word of Manasseh's
conversion to Jahve, the God of the fathers, with all his heart (‫) ֵלב ָשׁ ֵלם‬.
ְ Can it then
surprise us, that after Manasseh's death, under his son Amon, walking as he did in the
sins of his father, these external barriers fell straightway, and idolatry again publicly
appeared in all its proportions and extent, and that the images and altars of the idols
which had been cast out of Jerusalem were again set up in the temple and its courts? If
even the pious Josiah, with all his efforts for the extirpation of idolatry and the
revivification of the legal worship, could not accomplish more than the restoration,
during his reign, of the temple service according to the law, while after his death idolatry
again prevailed under Jehoiakim, what could Manasseh's half-measures effect? If this be
the true state of the case in regard to Manasseh's conversion, the passages 2Ki_24:3;
2Ki_23:26; Jer_15:4, where it is said that the Lord had cast out Judah from His
presence because of the sins of Manasseh, cease to give any support to the opposite view.
Manasseh is here named as the person who by his godlessness made the punishment of
Judah and Jerusalem unavoidable, because he so corrupted Judah by his sins, that it
could not now thoroughly turn to the Lord, but always fell back into the sins of
Manasseh. Similarly, in 2Ki_17:21 and 2Ki_17:22, it is said of the ten tribes that the Lord
cast them out from His presence because they walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, and
departed not from them.
With the removal of the supposed inconsistency between the statement in the
Chronicle as to Manasseh's change of sentiment, and the account of his godlessness in 2
Kings 21, every reason for suspecting the account of Manasseh's removal to Babylon as a
prisoner disappears; for even Graf admits that the mere silence of the book of Kings can
prove nothing, since the books of Kings do not record many other events which are
recorded in the Chronicle and are proved to be historical. This statement, however, is
thoroughly confirmed, both by its own contents and by its connection with other well-
attested historical facts. According to 2Ch_33:14, Manasseh fortified Jerusalem still
more strongly after his return to the throne by building a new wall. This statement,
which has as yet been called in question by no judicious critic, is so intimately connected
with the statements in the Chronicle as to his being taken prisoner, and the removal of
the images from the temple, that by it these latter are attested as historical. From this we
learn that the author of the Chronicle had at his command authorities which contained
more information as to Manasseh's reign than is to be found in our books of Kings, and
so the references to these special authorities which follow in 2Ch_33:18, 2Ch_33:19 are
corroborated. Moreover, the fortifying of Jerusalem after his return from his
imprisonment presupposes that he had had such an experience as impelled him to take
measures to secure himself against a repetition of hostile surprises. To this we must add
the statement that Manasseh was led away by the generals of the Assyrian king to
Babylon. The Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser (or Sargon) did not carry
away the Israelites to Babylon, but to Assyria; and the arrival of ambassadors from the
Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan in Jerusalem, in the time of Hezekiah (2Ki_20:12;
Isa_39:1), shows that at that time Babylon was independent of Assyria. The poetic
popular legend would without doubt have made Manasseh also to be carried away to
Assyria by the troops of the Assyrian king, not to Babylon. The statement that he was
carried away to Babylon by Assyrian warriors rests upon the certainty that Babylon was
then a province of the Assyrian empire; and this is corroborated by history. According to
the accounts of Abydenus and Alexander Polyhistor, borrowed from Berosus, which have
been preserved in Euseb. Chr. arm. i. p. 42f., Sennacherib brought Babylon, the
government of which had been usurped by Belibus, again into subjection, and made his
son Esarhaddon king over it, as his representative. The subjection of the Babylonians is
confirmed by the Assyrian monuments, which state that Sennacherib had to march
against the rebels in Babylon at the very beginning of his reign; and then again, in the
fourth year of it, that he subdued them, and set over them a new viceroy (see M.
Duncker, Gesch. des Alterth. i. S. 697f. and 707f. and ii. S. 592f., der 3 Aufl.). Afterwards,
when Sennacherib met his death at the hand of his sons (2Ki_19:37; Isa_37:38), his
oldest son Esarhaddon, the viceroy of Babylon, advanced with his army, pursued the
flying parricides, and after slaying them ascended the throne of Assyria, 680 b.c.
(Note: So Jul. Oppert, “die biblische Chronologie festgestellt nach den Assyrischen
Keilschriften,” in d. Ztschr. der deutsch. morgenl. Gesellsch. (xxiii. S. 134), 1869, S.
144; while Duncker, loc. cit. i. S. 709, on the ground of the divergent statement of
Berosus as to the reign of Esarhaddon, and according to other chronological
combinations, gives the year 693 b.c., - a date which harmonizes neither with
Sennacherib's inscriptions, so far as these have yet been deciphered, nor with the
statements of the Kanon Ptol., nor with biblical chronology. It, moreover, makes it
necessary to shorten the fifty-five years of Manasseh's reign to thirty-five, which is all
the more arbitrary as the chronological data of the Kanon Ptol. harmonize with the
biblical chronology and establish their accuracy, as I have already pointed out in my
apolog. Vers. über die Chron. S. 429f.)
Of Esarhaddon, who reigned thirteen years (from 680 to 667), we learn from Ezr_4:2,
col. with 2Ki_24:17, that he brought colonists to Samaria from Babylon, Cutha, and
other districts of his kingdom; and Abydenus relates of him, according to Berosus (in
Euseb. Chron. i. p. 54), that Axerdis (i.e., without doubt Esarhaddon) subdued Lower
Syria, i.e., the districts of Syria bordering on the sea, to himself anew. From these we
may, I think, conclude that not only the transporting of the colonists into the
depopulated kingdom of the ten tribes is connected with this expedition against Syria,
but that on this occasion also Assyrian generals took King Manasseh prisoner, and
carried him away to Babylon, as Ewald (Gesch. iii. S. 678), and Duncker, S. 715, with
older chronologists and expositors (Usher, des Vignoles, Calmet, Ramb., J. D. Mich., and
others), suppose. The transport of Babylonian colonists to Samaria is said in Seder Olam
rab. p. 67, ed. Meyer, and by D. Kimchi, according to Talmudic tradition, to have taken
place in the twenty-second year of Manasseh's reign; and this statement gains
confirmation from the fact - as was remarked by Jac. Cappell. and Usher - that the
period of sixty-five years after which, according to the prophecy in Isa_7:8, Ephraim was
to be destroyed so that it should no more be a people, came to an end with the twenty-
second year of Manasseh, and Ephraim, i.e., Israel of the ten tribes, did indeed cease to
be a people only with the immigration of heathen colonists into its land (cf. Del. on Isa_
7:8). But the twenty-second year of Manasseh corresponds to the year 776 b.c. and the
fourth year of Esarhaddon.
By this agreement with extra-biblical narratives in its statement of facts and in its
chronology, the narrative in the Chronicle of Manasseh's captivity in Babylon is raised
above every doubt, and is corroborated even by the Assyrian monuments. “We now
know,” remarks Duncker (ii. S. 92) in this connection, “that Esarhaddon says in his
inscriptions that twenty-two kings of Syria hearkened to him: he numbers among them
Minasi (Manasseh of Judah) and the kings of Cyprus.” As to the details both of his
capture and his liberation, we cannot make even probable conjectures, since we have
only a few bare notices of Esarhaddon's reign; and even his building works, which might
have given us some further information, were under the influence of a peculiarly unlucky
star, for the palace built by him at Kalah or Nimrod remained unfinished, and was then
destroyed by a great fire (cf. Spiegel in Herz.'s Realencykl. xx. S. 225). Yet, from the fact
that in 2Ch_33:1, as in 2Ki_21:1, the duration of Manasseh's reign is stated to have been
fifty-five years, without any mention being made of an interruption, we may probably
draw this conclusion at least, that the captivity did not last long, and that he received his
liberty upon a promise to pay tribute, although he appears not to have kept this promise,
or only for a short period. For that, in the period between Hezekiah and Josiah, Judah
must have come into a certain position of dependence upon Assyria, cannot be
concluded from 2Ki_23:19 (cf. 2Ch_33:15 with 17:28) and 2 Chr 23:29, as E. Gerlach
thinks.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:15-16. He took away the strange gods — The images of
them, and that idol, whatever it was, which he had set up with so much solemnity in
the house of the Lord. And all the altars — The idolatrous altars, as detestable
things, loathing them as much, it is to be hoped, as ever he had loved them. And he
repaired the altar of the Lord — Which had either been abused or broken down by
some of the idolatrous priests, or at least neglected, and was therefore gone out of
repair. And sacrificed thereon peace-offerings — To implore God’s favour; and
thank-offerings — To praise him for his deliverance. And commanded Judah to
serve the Lord — Using his power to reform his people, as he had before abused it
to corrupt them. Thus he brought forth fruit meet for repentance, and endeavoured,
as far as he could, to repair the injuries which he had done to the cause of God by
his impious commands, 2 Chronicles 33:9. Observe, reader, those that truly repent
of their sins, will not only return to God themselves, but will do all they can to bring
those back to him that have, by their example, been seduced and drawn away from
him.

ELLICOTT, "(15) Took away the strange gods.—Comp. 2 Chronicles 33:3-7. For
the phrase “strange gods” (ĕlôhê nçkâr), see Genesis 35:2.

The idol.—That is, the Asherah (2 Chronicles 33:3; 2 Chronicles 33:7; 2 Kings 21:7;
2 Kings 17:16).
In the mount of the house.—The temple hill. Thenius says: the courts with the altars
in them (2 Kings xxi 4, 5).

Cast them out.—Comp. 2 Chronicles 29:16; 2 Chronicles 30:14 Manasseh’s reform

was hardly complete, for some of his altars remained for Josiah to pull down (2
Kings 23:12).

PULPIT, "It will be noted how the mount of the house of the Lord is here
differenced from the city. "The city" seems to have comprised the two hills east and
west of the Tyropoean valley, and the "fore" city enclosed by the new wall (see Dr.
Murphy's valuable little 'Handbook to Chronicles'). The strange gods, the idol, and
the altars have all been mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:3-7.

16 Then he restored the altar of the Lord and

sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings
on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of
Israel.

GILL, "And he repaired the altar of the Lord,.... Which was fallen to ruin, being
neglected and disused in his times of idolatry: or, according to the Keri, or marginal
reading, and so the Targum, "he built it"; which perhaps he had before pulled down and
destroyed:

and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings; to the Lord, for
bringing him out of captivity, and restoring him to his kingdom; and especially for
converting him from his idolatries, giving him repentance for them, and forgiveness of
sins:

and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel; and him only; another
instance of the truth of his repentance, in endeavouring to reform those whom he had
misled, and restore the true worship of God among them, and bring them back to that.

ELLICOTT, "(16) Repaired.—Heb., built, i.e., rebuilt. Ewald concludes from this
that Manasseh had removed the altar of burnt offering; and from Jeremiah 3:16
that he destroyed the ark of the covenant. (Some Hebrew MSS., and many editions
read prepared instead of built; but the Syriac and Arabic have the latter word,
which is doubtless right.)

17 The people, however, continued to sacrifice at

the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

CLARKE, "The people did sacrifice - “Nevertheless the people did sacrifice on
the high places, but only to the name of the Word of the Lord their God.” - Targum.

GILL, "Nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the high places,.... Not in
those that were built for idols, at least did not sacrifice to them; for it follows:

yet unto the Lord their God only; the Targum is,"to the name of the Word of the
Lord their God.''

JAMISO, "the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the
Lord their God only — Here it appears that the worship on high places, though it
originated in a great measure from the practice of heathenism, and too often led to it,
did not necessarily imply idolatry.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:17. evertheless, the people did sacrifice still, &c. —
“Rabbi Kimchi observes very well here, that though Manasseh’s repentance might
be sincere, yet it was attended with a melancholy circumstance, which ought to
sound in the ear of every one invested with power, His example and authority easily
seduced his people to idolatry; but his royal mandate was unable to reclaim them.”
— Dodd. He could not carry the reformation so far as he had carried the
corruption. It is an easy thing to debauch men’s manners; but not so easy to reform
them again.

COFFMA, "The people sacrificed in the high places, but only unto Jehovah their
God (2 Chronicles 33:17). "This was still contrary to the Mosaic Law and actually
accomplished little more than apply a new name to the old Baal worship."[6]

These reforms in Manasseh's reign came far too late to have much effect; and
besides that, his reign probably was concluded before he had finished all that he
planned to do.
COKE, "2 Chronicles 33:17. evertheless the people did sacrifice still, &c.— Rabbi
Kimchi observes very well here, that though Manasseh's repentance might have
been sincere, yet it was attended with a melancholy circumstance that ought to
sound in the car of every one invested with power. His example and authority easily
seduced his people to idolatry; but his royal mandate was unable to reclaim them.

REFLECTIOS.—1st, Manasseh's wicked beginning was before observed, 2 Kings

21. He was idolatrous, profane, abandoned to every evil, and strove as if to root out
the name of the Lord, that it should be no more had in remembrance: hardened
against reproof, and not content to be vile himself, compelling his people to worse
abominations than ever the heathen committed. ote; (1.) The work of reformation
is with difficulty accomplished, the establishment of wickedness readily complied
with. (2.) Could many good fathers return from their graves, their hearts would
break to see the abominations of their ungodly children. (3.) God leaves not the
worst without some checks of conscience, or reproofs from his word; but they rush
determinedly on their ruin.

2nd, Though God bears long and is kind, he will make inquisition at last.

1. The king of Babylon, now the conqueror of Assyria, advances, and, having borne
down all before him, drags forth the wicked Manasseh from a thicket of thorns,
whither he had fled to hide himself, and, binding him in fetters, carries him captive
to Babylon. ow Hezekiah's treasures were given for a prey, and the people
received the just scourge of their faithless apostacy.

2. What all the former warnings could not effect, this heavy affliction brought
about. In his misery, Manasseh thought upon God, and with deep humiliation cried
for mercy. Happy prison! How infinitely better to him, than the defiled palaces of
Zion. ote; (1.) Sanctified afflictions are among the greatest mercies. (2.) They who
remember in trouble their own evil ways, will feel the bitterness of them, and groan
being burdened. (3.) There is no case so desperate as to exclude hope, while there is
access to the throne of grace.

3. God had compassion upon him, and inclined the heart of the king of Babylon to
pity and restore him to his lost dignity. ote; (1.) The vilest of sinners need not
despair when Manasseh is pardoned. (2.) When our misery drives us to God, he will
not refuse to help us. (3.) The prayer of penitence never yet ascended without
receiving the answer of peace.

4. Made wise by past experience, he now knew that the Lord alone was God, whose
rod he had felt, and whose mercy he had tasted: therefore, with detestation of his
former abominations, every idol is destroyed out of God's house; his ruined altar is
repaired: his sacrifices and service are restored, and the people brought back from
their idolatry. The high places, indeed, were not taken away; but though on them
they still sacrificed, it was to the Lord Jehovah only. ote; (1.) Where the heart is
truly converted, there will be a through change in the conduct. (2.) The worship of
God is among the first concerns of the awakened soul. (3.) When we are brought to a
sense of our sins, we shall zealously labour to recover those whom we have seduced,
or emboldened to transgress, by our own ill examples.

5. In consequence of his unfeigned repentance, God strengthened him in his

kingdom, Jerusalem was fortified, and the cities of Judah garrisoned. Without God,
all defences are vain: if he be with us, his name is a strong tower; the righteous
fleeth unto it, and are safe.

6. Manasseh no more revolted from God. The sun, which rose so eclipsed, set with
splendour. Accounts of his wickedness and repentance were preserved in the books
of the kings of Israel, and the writings of the seers, who had spoken to him in the
name of the Lord. He rejected their message indeed at first, but afterwards
acknowledged his guilt and shame, and wished its memory to be perpetuated as a
warning to others. He was buried privately, probably at his own desire as a mark of
humiliation, and left his throne to his ungodly son and successor Amon. ote; (1.)
Though God has forgiven our sin, to our last hour we had need remember, and be
confounded at the review of it. (2.) They who are true penitents are most willing to
take shame to themselves for their sins.

3rdly, Amon copied the worst of his father's wicked ways. The images which
Manasseh had cast out, and should have destroyed, he restored. More madly
attached to his idols, than even his unhappy father had been, and incorrigible in his
sin, he never, like him, repented. Short was his career of impiety: in two years he fell
by a conspiracy of his own servants, and left the kingdom to the last good king of
Judah. ote; (1.) Final impenitence seals up the soul under eternal ruin. (2.) That
which is evil, is much easier copied than what is good. (3.) It is a mercy to a land
when wicked magistrates are quickly cut off from it.

POOLE, "i.e. Of Judah, oft called Israel, as hath been noted before. He speaks not
of that part of the canon, called the

Book of Kings, for these things are not mentioned there; but of their public records,
where all things were particularly mentioned, and whence the most important
things were taken by the prophets, and put into those canonical books

PULPIT, "Compare Hezekiah's good work (2 Chronicles 31:1) with his son's bad
work (2 Chronicles 33:3); the latter could undo his father's good, but now could not
undo his own evil! The illegitimate worshippings and offerings of high places,
though they had been "winked at" from time to time by some of even the better of
the kings, were of course essentially counter to the one national worship in the one
temple, and to the offerings and sacrifices of the one national altar.
18 The other events of Manasseh’s reign,
including his prayer to his God and the words the
seers spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the
God of Israel, are written in the annals of the
kings of Israel.[a]

BARES, "The “prayer of Manasseh,” preserved to us in some manuscripts of the

Septuagint, has no claim to be considered the genuine utterance of the Jewish king. It is
the composition of a Hellenistic Jew, well acquainted with the Septuagint, writing at a
time probably not much anterior to the Christian era.
The words of the seers that spake to him - See 2Ki_21:11-15.
In the book of the kings of Israel - The writer of Chronicles usually speaks of “the
book of the kings of, Judah and Israel” (or “Israel and Judah”). Here be designates the
same compilation by a more compendious title, without (apparently) any special reason
for the change. Compare 2Ch_20:34.

CLARKE, "The words of the seers that spake to him - “Which were spoken to
him in the name of the Word of the Lord God of Israel.” - Targum.

GILL, "Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh,.... Good and bad, what were done by
him both before and after his conversion:

and his prayer unto his God; which it seems was taken and recorded, but now lost;
for as for that which is among the apocryphal writings, there is no reason to believe it to
be his, though it is thought to be so by many (o):

and the words of the seers; or the prophets, as the Targum; and the prophets in his
days, according to the Jewish chronology (p), were Joel, Nahum, and Habakkuk:

that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel; words of admonition
and reproof before his humiliation, and words of comfort, advice, and instruction, after
it; the Targum is,"that spake to him in the name of the Word of the Lord God of Israel:"

behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel; not in the canonical
book so called, where none of the above things, namely, his prayer, and the speeches of
the prophets, are to be found, at least not all; but in the annals of the kings of Israel, now
lost.

HERY 18-19, "V. His prosperity, in some measure, after his repentance. He might
plainly see it was sin that ruined him; for, when he returned to God in a way of duty, God
returned to him in a way of mercy: and then he built a wall about the city of David
(2Ch_33:14), for by sin he had unwalled it and exposed it to the enemy. He also put
captains of war in the fenced cities for the security of his country. Josephus says that all
the rest of his time he was so changed for the better that he was looked upon as a very
happy man.
Lastly, Here is the conclusion of his history. The heads of those things for a full
narrative of which we are referred to the other writings that were then extant are more
than of any of the kings, 2Ch_33:18, 2Ch_33:19. A particular account, it seems, was
kept, 1. Of all his sin, and his trespass, the high places he built, the groves and images
he set up, before he was humbled. Probably this was taken from his own confession
which he made of his sin when God gave him repentance, and which he left upon record,
in a book entitled, The words of the seers. To those seers that spoke to him (2Ch_33:18)
to reprove him for his sin he sent his confession when he repented, to be inserted in
their memoirs, as a token of his gratitude to them for their kindness in reproving him.
Thus it becomes penitents to take shame to themselves, to give thanks to their reprovers,
and warning to others. 2. Of the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the
Lord (2Ch_33:10, 2Ch_33:18), the reproofs they gave him for his sin and their
exhortations to repentance. Note, Sinners ought to consider, that, how little notice
soever they take of them, an account is kept of the words of the seers that speak to them
from God to admonish them of their sins, warn them of their danger, and call them to
their duty, which will be produced against them in the great day. 3. Of his prayer to God
(this is twice mentioned as a remarkable thing) and how God was entreated of him. This
was written for the generations to come, that the people that should be created might
praise the Lord for his readiness to receive returning prodigals. Notice is taken of the
place of his burial, not in the sepulchres of the kings, but in his own house; he was
buried privately, and nothing of that honour was done him at his death that was done to
his father. Penitents may recover their comfort sooner than their credit.

K&D, "Conclusion of Manasseh's history. His other acts, his prayer, and words of the
prophets of the Lord against him, were recorded in the history of the kings of Israel;
while special accounts of his prayer, and how it was heard (‫ה ָע ֶתר־לּו‬,
ֵ the letting Himself be
entreated, i.e., how God heard him), of his sons, and the high places, altars, and images
which he erected before his humiliation, were contained in the sayings of Hozai (see the
Introduction).

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:18. The words of the seers that spake to him in the
name of the Lord — The reproofs they gave him for his sin, and their exhortations
to repentance. Let sinners consider, that how little notice soever they take of them,
an account is kept of the words of the seers, that speak to them from God, to
admonish them of their sins, and warn them of their danger, and call them to their
duty, which words will be produced against them in the great day. They are written
in the books of the kings of Israel — Of Judah, often called Israel. He speaks not of
the books of Kings, for these things are not mentioned there, but of their public
records, whence the most important things were taken by the prophets, and put into
those canonical books.

ELLICOTT, "COCLUSIO OF THE REIG (2 Chronicles 33:18-20).

(18) His prayer unto his God.—This prayer may or may not have been the basis of
the Apocryphal Prayer of Manasses, preserved in the LXX.

The words of the seers that spake to him.—See ote on 2 Chronicles 33:10, supr.
These “words of the seers” were incorporated in the great history of the kings,
which is mentioned at the end of the verse, and which was one of the chronicler’s
principal authorities.

Written.—This word, though wanting in our present Hebrew text, is read in some
MSS., and in the Syriac, Targum, and Arabic.

The book.—The history, literally, words. 2 Kings 21:17 refers, as usual, to the
“Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.”

GUZIK, "4. (2 Chronicles 33:18-20) Manasseh’s death and burial.

ow the rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the
seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, indeed they are
written in the book of the kings of Israel. Also his prayer and how God received his
entreaty, and all his sin and trespass, and the sites where he built high places and set
up wooden images and carved images, before he was humbled, indeed they are
written among the sayings of Hozai. So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and they
buried him in his own house. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.

a. The rest of the acts of Manasseh: The Chronicler must refer to documents that
have more information than the 2 Kings text. 2 Kings does not mention the
repentance of Manasseh, and does not tell us anything about his reign substantially
different than what we read in 2 Chronicles.

i. “Manasseh illustrates one of the central themes of Chronicles, that God can fulfil
his promise of restoration in 2 Chronicles 7:12-16 to the repentant even in the most
extreme circumstances.” (Selman)

ii. “As for despair, it is damnable. While the story of Manasseh stands on record, no
mortal hath a just excuse to perish in despair; no one is justified in saying, ‘God will
never forgive me.’ Read over again the history of Manasseh; see to what lengths of
sin he went, to what extravagant heights of evil he climbed; and then say to yourself,
‘Did sovereign mercy reach him? Then it can also reach me.’” (Spurgeon)
b. So Manasseh rested with his fathers: Manasseh was a remarkably bad and evil
king; yet at the end of his days he truly repented and served God. In this way, we
can say that it was very true that Manasseh rested with his fathers.

i. “Manasseh’s conversion helps to explain a longstanding problem in Kings,

namely, why the exile did not fall in Manasseh’s reign if his sins were really so
serious.” (Selman)

ii. Yet, his repentance was too late to change the nation. “The widespread revolts
during the reign of Ashurbanipal, which occurred from 652-648 B.C., may provide
the occasion for Manasseh’s summons to Babylon and imprisonment. If so, his
subsequent release and reform were apparently far too late to have much of an
effect on the obdurately backslidden people.” (Patterson and Austel)

iii. It was also not soon enough to change the destiny of the kingdom. “Years later,
when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, the writer would blame Judah’s
punishment on the sins of Manasseh (2 Kings 24:3-4).” (Dilday)

iv. Manasseh was “more than any other single person was responsible for the final
destruction of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 23:26; 2Ki_24:3; Jeremiah 15:4).”
(Payne)

PULPIT, "The parallel again obtains (2 Kings 21:17, 2 Kings 21:18), but in shorter
form. His prayer. This is for the present, at any rate, lost, the apocryphal and the
Septuagint manuscript version of it alike not genuine. The words of the seers. So
again our compiler shows undesigned correspondence with the writer of the
parallel, as above quoted (2 Kings 21:10-15). As to the original authorities quoted
here, book of the kings, etc; and next verse, "the sayings of the seers," see
Introduction, vol. 1. § 5.

BI, "And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God.
Manasseh’s wickedness and penitence
I. Manssseh’s career in crime.
II. His return to and acceptance of God.
III. The gracious results of his penitence. Improvement.
1. The lamentable wickedness and duplicity of the human heart.
2. The freeness, fulness, and efficacy of Divine grace.
3. The consequences of salvation are reformation and obedience. (T.B. Baker.)

Manasseh
Manasseh is an eminent instance of the power, richness, and freeness of the Divine
mercy. Observe—
I. The sins which he committed.
1. Their contributory cause. His early freedom from restraint, his coming to supreme
power when only twelve years of age.
2. Their special nature. The catalogue is appalling.
3. Their aggravated nature.
(1) They were committed in defiance of religious education, and of the
admonitions and example of his father.
(2) They were of more than common enormity.
(3) They were productive of more than ordinary evil to others.
(4) They were in defiance of the expostulations of the prophets (verse 10).
II. The repentance which he exercised.
1. Its cause.
(1) Its more remote cause was probably his religious education. The case of
Manasseh is not discouraging to training children in the way they should go.
(2) The immediate cause was affliction.
2. Its nature.
(1) Deep conviction of sin.
(2) Deep contrition.
(3) Earnest prayer.
(4) Reformation of life.
III. The mercies which manasseh received.
1. Temporal nature.
2. Spiritual He was brought to the spiritual knowledge of the God of his salvation.
“Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.” This knowledge led him to fear,
trust, love, and obey. This obedience was accompanied by the deepest self-
renunciation and abasement to the end of his life. Lessons.
1. To those who are insensible of their sinfulness.
2. To those who are ready to sink into despair under the weight of their sinfulness.
3. To those who are disposed to presume on the mercy of God. Manasseh’s son
Amon was quickly cut off in the midst of his sins (verses 21-28). He seems to be a
beacon set up close by the side of his penitent and accepted father, to warn all
persons against presuming on the mercy manifested to Manasseh. (Homilist.)

Manasseh’s repentance
I. His character as a sinner.
1. He was a notorious sinner.
 2. He was not a hopeless sinner.
II. His conduct as a penitent.
1. The period of his repentance is specified. “When he was in affliction.”
2. The nature of his repentance is described.
(1) Deep humility.
(2) Fervent prayer. These invariably distinguish the conduct of every true
penitent (Jer_31:18-19; Luk_18:13; Act_9:11).
III. His salvation as a believer.
1. He obtained the pardoning mercy of God.
2. He received a saving knowledge of God (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Manasseh humbled
I. The benefit of afflictions in bringing the sinner to a true sense of his condition and
converting him to God.
II. The mercy of God in so bringing and receiving him.
III. The remaining and lasting portion of the evil of sin, even after the individual is
pardoned. In the Second Book of Kings it is repeatedly declared that Judah was
destroyed on account of the sons of Manasseh.
1. A man looks back with sorrow and contrite concern upon the follies and sins of his
youth; but what of his companions in guilt? Some, perhaps, whom he seduced into
sin, and many whom he encouraged and confirmed in sin.
2. Some writers have employed their pens in the odious cause of immorality and
irreligion. Such persons have lamented their errors; but the publication has done its
work; the poison has been circulated, and the corruption is incurable. (J. Slade, M.
A.)

The conversion of Manasseh

I. That early advantages may be succeeded by complicated sin.
II. That sin is frequently the cause of severe affliction.
III. That affliction, when sanctified, exalts to prayer, and promotes humiliation.
IV. That prayer and humiliation are always attended with distinguished blessings, and
produce valuable effects.
V. From the whole.
1. The patience of God.
2. The sovereignty of God.
3. The wisdom of God in adapting means to the conversion of men.
4. The mercy of God in saving the chief of sinners. (S. Kidd.)
The repentance of Manasseh
We will connect the important change which took place in the mind of Manasseh—
I. With his early advantages. John Newton states somewhere, “When I was in the
deepest misery, and when I was committing the most atrocious sin, I always seemed to
feel the hand of my sainted mother pressing my head.”
II. With the afflictions by which it was produced.
III. With the effects which it unfolded.
IV. With the sovereignty of Divine Grace. (A. E. Farrar.)

Manasseh brought to repentance

I. His life of sin.
1. It was in direct contrast to the good reign of his father.
2. His sin involved many in guilt. He “made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
to err.”
3. He was not moved by the sight of the same wickedness in those whom he despised
(2Ki_21:9).
4. His sin was not checked by God’s punishment of others. The heathen had been
driven out from the land because of their wickedness. Judah occupied their place and
adopted their vice.
II. The life of manasseh under God’s chastisement. We learn from recently discovered
Assyrian inscriptions what is meant by “among the thorns.” The word thus translated
means a hook, which was put through the under lips of captives. The depths of
Manasseh’s degradation may be imagined. Yet it was sent in mercy to turn him to God.
III. His repentance and restoration.
IV. His re-establishment of the worship of God. Lessons.
1. Never to be ashamed of repentance.
2. We see the meaning of God’s chastisements.
3. The power of a single man when he has turned from sin to God.
4. The necessity of solitary communion with God.
5. The patient love of God. (Monday Club Sermons.)

The conversion of an aged transgressor

I. Let us attend to the circumstances which by the grace of God led to the conversion of
Manasseh.
1. Affliction.
2. Solitary reflection.
 3. Prayer.
II. Consider next how the grace of God operated in Manasseh.
1. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2. He was made to know that the Lord was God.
3. He brought forth fruits meet for repentance.
III. The circumstances which made his conversion peculiarly striking.
1. It was the conversion of an atrocious sinner.
2. Of an aged sinner.
3. It took place at a distance from the ordinary means of grace. (H. Belfrage, D.D.)

Manasseh
God contents not Himself to have left on record in His word declarations and promises
of grace as beacons of hope to the sinner. We have examples also of His acts of grace.
Abounding iniquity, and more abounding grace, are the special features presented to us
in this history of Manasseh.
I. Abounding iniquity marked Manasseh’s course.
1. He was the son of Hezekiah the servant of the Lord. We place this foremost as an
aggravation of his sin, that in spite of a father’s example he cast off the fear of the
Lord and sinned with a high hand against his God. That father, indeed, was early
taken from him, for Manasseh was but twelve years old when he began to reign; still,
the memory of Hezekiah’s piety could not have been utterly forgotten. Too marked
had been the interposition of Jehovah in that father’s deliverance from Assyria and
in his recovery from sickness for the report to have passed away. But Manasseh
heeded not these things; “he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to
provoke Him to anger.”
2. Manasseh added to his disregard of a godly parent this iniquity also, that he led
his children unto sin,” he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of
the son of Hinnom.” . . . Some godless parents have shown a happy inconsistency, in
that whilst pursuing themselves that path “whose end is destruction,” they have
desired for their offspring that they should seek the Lord. The force of example,
indeed, meeting as it does with “the evil that is bound up in the heart of a child,” will
in such eases often prove too powerful to be withstood. But Manasseh took no such
course, but dedicated his children as well as himself to the service of the false gods.
Alas, the reproducing power of evil! Thou that art a citizen of the world, intent on
gain or pleasure, can it be expected but that thy children should walk after thee in the
same destructive road?
3. Manasseh bade defiance to Jehovah in His own sanctuary. Not only did he build
again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, but “he set a carved
image,” the idol which he had made, “in the house of God.” It was not enough that he
himself should bow down to idols, and that his children should also do them
homage, but with yet more prsumptuous sin he declared himself, in the face of all
Israel, an idolater, and desecrated to this base end the very temple, of which the Lord
had said, “My Name shall be there.” It is the very character of Jehovah that He is “a
 jealous God,” “His glory will He not give to another.”
4. But further, Manasseh “shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled
Jerusalem from one end to another.” The faithful who warned him were doubtless
the ones especially sacrificed to his vengeance, and it is supposed that Isaiah suffered
death under this fearful persecutor of the Church of God. For the wickedness of
Manasseh could not plead this even in palliation that he was unrebuked: “The Lord
spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken.” What depth of
malignity is there in the unchanged soul! what pollutions! what ingratitude! what
rebellion! Were it not for the restraining grace of God, what a scene of bloodshed and
of all enormity would this earth be!
II. More abounding still the grace of God.
1. In chastisement the first faint streak of mercy manifested itself. The voice of plenty
had spoken to him in vain, the voice of warning had been treated with neglect, but
now the voice of correction speaks in tones not to be gainsaid. The alarm of war is
heard in that guilty court.
2. His deep penitence bore witness to the workings of grace. He humbled himself
greatly before the God of his fathers That word “greatly” speaks much as recorded by
the Spirit of truth. As with the gospel itself, so with the chastenings of the Lord, they
are either “a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.”
3. The voice of prayer went up from that prison-house, “He besought the Lord . . .
and prayed unto Him.” Tears, many it may be, fell before one prayer was uttered.
4. Abounding grace, shone forth, too, in the answer granted to prayer. “God was
intreated of him.” He heard his cry, and hope sprung up in his downcast soul.
5. The workings of God’s grace were further evidenced by the fruits of faith in life
according to godliness. Manasseh restored to his kingdom, has now but one object in
view, the glory of God, and that object he consistently pursued. The idol is east out
from the temple, and the altars of the false gods out of the city, and the people are
commanded “to serve the Lord God of Israel.” He turned not aside from his purpose
to bring back to Jehovah those whom formerly he had led away to sin; and this godly
course he pursued unto the end.
Lessons.
1. The first is, that there is a fulness of grace in God as our reconciled Father in
Christ Jesus beyond the power of heart to conceive, or of tongue to utter.
2. But this history also reminds us of the dreadful nature of sin. Deep are its furrows,
lasting its effects. Manasseh is pardoned, but,could he repair the evil he had done?
(F. Storr, M.A.)

Manasseh
We shall consider Manasseh—
I. As a sinner.
1. He sinned against light, against a pious education and early training. It is a
notorious fact that when men do go wrong after a good training they are the worst
men in the world. The murder of John Williams at Erromanga was brought about by
 the evil doings of a trader who had gone to the island, and who was also the son of a
missionary. He had become reckless in his habits, and treated the islanders with
such barbarity and cruelty that they revenged his conduct upon the next white man
who put his foot upon their shore.
2. He was a very bold sinner.
3. He had the power of leading others to a very large extent astray.
II. As an unbeliever. He did not believe that Jehovah was God alone.
1. The unlimited power that Manasseh possessed had a great tendency to make him a
disbeliever.
2. His pride was another cause.
3. Another cause was his love for sin.
III. As a convert. He believed in God—
1. Because God had answered his prayer.
2. Because He had forgiven his sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Manasseh’s repentance
Manasseh is unique alike in extreme wickedness, sincere penitence, and thorough
reformation. The reformation of Julius Caesar or of our own Henry V, or to take a
different class of instance, the conversion of Paul, was nothing compared to the
conversion of Manasseh. It was as though Herod the Great or Caesar Borgia had been
checked midway in a career of cruelty and vice, and had thenceforward lived pure and
holy lives, glorifying God by ministering to their fellow-men. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)

He was intreated of him.

Pardon for the greatest guilt
The story of Manasseh is a very valuable one. I feel sure of this, because you meet with it
twice in the Word of God. God would have us again and again dwell upon such wonders
of sovereign grace as Manasseh presents to us.
I. Let us examine the case before us.
1. Manasseh was the son of a good father.
2. He undid all his father’s actions.
3. He served false gods.
4. He desecrated the Lord’s courts. There are some to-day who do this; for they
make even their attendance at the house of God to be an occasion for evil.
5. He dedicated his children to the devil. Nobody here will dedicate his children to
the devil, surely; yet many do. Have I not seen a father dedicate his boy to the devil,
as he has encouraged him to drink? And do not many in this great city, dedicate their
children to the devil by allowing them to go into all kinds of licentiousness, until they
become the victims of vice?
 6. He fraternised with the devil, by seeking after all kinds of supernatural witcheries
and wizardries.
7. He led others astray.
8. He persecuted the people of God. It is said,—we do not know whether it was so or
not,—but it is highly probable, that he caused Isaiah to be cut asunder with a wooden
saw.
9. In short, Manasseh was a compound of every sort of wickedness.
10. Notwithstanding all this Manasseh was pardoned. How it came about?
(1) Being in great trouble, he turned to Jehovah his God.
(2) He humbled himself greatly.
(3) He prayed.
II. Let us consider why there should be others like Manasseh. Judging from many
probabilities, that God will save other great sinners as He saved Manasseh.
1. Because He speaks to such great sinners and commands them to repent (Isa_1:16-
18). Because of the great promises God has given to great sinners.
3. Because of the nature of God.
4. From what I know of the value of the blood of Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.—

Forgiveness and the knowledge of God
Men first begin to know God when they are forgiven. What did the prodigal know about
his father when he asked for the portion of goods that fell to him, or while he was
wasting his substance in riotous living? Because love and forgiveness are more strange
and unearthly than rebuke and chastisement, the sinner is humbled by pardon far more
than by punishment; and his trembling submission to the righteous Judge deepens into
profounder reverence and awe for the God who can forgive, who is superior to all
vindictiveness, whose infinite resources enable Him to blot out the guilt, to cancel the
penalty, and annul the consequences of sin. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)

19 His prayer and how God was moved by his

entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness,
and the sites where he built high places and set up
Asherah poles and idols before he humbled
himself—all these are written in the records of the
seers.[b]

BARES, "The seers - Most moderns adopt the translation given in the margin of
the Authorized Version, making Hosai (or rather, Chozai) a proper name. The point is a
doubtful one.

CLARKE, "His prayer also - What is called the Prayer of Manasseh, king of Judah,
when he was holden captive in Babylon, being found among our apocryphal books, I
have inserted it at the end of the chapter, without either asserting or thinking that it is
the identical prayer which this penitent king used when a captive in Babylon. But, as I
have observed in another place, there are many good sentiments in it; and some sinners
may find it a proper echo of the distresses of their hearts; I therefore insert it.
Written among the sayings of the seers - “They are written in the words of
Chozai.” - Targum. So says the Vulgate. The Syriac has Hunan the prophet; and the
Arabic has Saphan the prophet.

GILL, "His prayer also,.... Was not only recorded in the above annals, but in the
writings of another person after mentioned:

and how God was entreated of him; heard his prayer, and showed him favour both
in a temporal and spiritual way; for though the Jews would not allow that he was saved,
or had a part in the world to come, eternal life (q), yet there appears no just reason why
it should be so thought:

and all his sin, and his trespass; his impieties, idolatries, and murders: and the
places wherein he built high places; see 2Ch_33:3.

and set up groves; statues in groves:

and graven images, before he was humbled; see 2Ch_33:7,

behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers; or of Hosea, the name
of a prophet who wrote the history of his own times; so the Targrim and Vulgate Latin
version; and, according to the Jewish chronology (r), there was a prophet of this name in
the times of Amon the son of Manasseh.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:19. His prayer also — Which is twice mentioned as
remarkable. We have a prayer which, it is pretended, he made in prison. The
church does not receive it as canonical; but it has a place among the apocryphal
pieces, and, in our collection, stands before the books of Maccabees. The Greek
church has received it into its book of prayers, and it is there sometimes used as a
devout form, and which contains nothing in it deserving censure. And how God was
entreated of him — Which was written for the generations to come, that the people
that should be created might praise the Lord, for his readiness to receive returning
prodigals. They are written among the sayings of the seers — To those seers that
spake to him, (2 Chronicles 33:18,) to reprove him for his sin, he sent his confession,
when he repented, to be inserted in their memoirs, as a token of his gratitude to
them for their kindness in reproving him. Thus it becomes penitents to take shame
to themselves, and to give thanks to their reprovers, and warning to others.

ELLICOTT, "(19) His prayer also . . . of him.—And his prayer, and the hearing
him. Literally, and the being propitious to him (the same verb as in 2 Chronicles
33:13 and Genesis 25:21).

All his sins, and his trespass.—All his sin and his unfaithfulness. 2 Kings 21:17 has,
“And his sin that he sinned.” The chronicler, as usual, heightens the expression.

Groves.—The Ashçrim. (See ote on 2 Chronicles 33:3.)

Among the sayings of the seers.—In the history of Hozai. This work was, therefore,
the source from which the chronicler derived his additional information about the
reign of Manasseh. (See Introduction.) The LXX. has “the seers;” but the Vulg., “in
sermonibus Hozai,” and the Syriac, “in the story of Hanan the prophet.” It is pretty
clear that Hozai is simply a mutilated form of ha-hôzîm, “the seers,” a term which
occurred in 2 Chronicles 33:17.

POOLE, "Or rather, of Hosai, a writer so called; for when the sacred penmen make
a reference, they constantly refer us to some particular book or certain author, as to
the chronicles of the kings of Israel, or Judah; to the prophecy of Ahijah, or Oded,
&c.

20 Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was

buried in his palace. And Amon his son succeeded
him as king.
GILL 20-25, "So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his
own house,.... That is, in the garden of his house; see Gill on 2Ki_21:18; there; to which
may be added, that the Jews (s) in later times buried in a garden; though it was the
custom of the ancients, both Greeks (t) and Romans (u), to bury the dead in their own
houses; hence sprung the worship of the Lares and Penates, the household gods: from
hence to the end of the chapter is the same with 2Ki_21:18.

JAMISO, "2Ch_33:20-25. He dies and Amon succeeds him.

Manasseh slept with his fathers ... Amon began to reign — (See on 2Ki_
21:19).

K&D, "Manasseh was buried in his house, or, according to the more exact statement
in 2Ki_21:18, in the garden of his house - in the garden of Uzza; see on that passage.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:20. And they buried him in his own house — ot in the
sepulchres of the kings. He was buried privately, and nothing of that honour was
done him, at his death, that was done to his father. Penitents may recover their
comfort sooner than their credit.

ELLICOTT, "(20) In his own house.—2 Kings 21:18, “and he was buried in the
garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza.” The words, in the garden of, seem to
have fallen out of our text. So LXX., ἐν παραδείσῳ οἴκου αὐτοῦ; Syriac, “in his
house, in the garden of treasure.”

PARKER, ""Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own
house" ( 2 Chronicles 33:20).

Yet in what sense did he sleep with his fathers, and in what sense was he buried?
"The evil that men do lives after them." There was no good to inter with this man"s
bones, until a late period in life. Manasseh had a Song of Solomon , whose name was
Amon, and in due time Amon succeeded to the throne. Amon was but twenty-two
years of age when he began to reign in Jerusalem, and he reigned only two years.
What did he do within that period? A very remarkable character is given to him in
a few words:—

ISBET, "A ROYAL TRIO

‘So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and
Amon his son reigned in his stead,’ etc.
2 Chronicles 33:20-25
otice the chief lessons which lie in the life of these three kings.

I. Manasseh.—There is no limit to the mercy of God. Sinners the chief are welcome
to complete forgiveness. If only great saints got into heaven, we who are great
sinners would lose hope. But when we see Manasseh and men like him going in and
getting welcome, there is hope for us. If we follow their steps in repentance, we shall
be permitted to join their company in rest.

II. Amon.—Beware of turning the riches of God’s grace into a snare. As Manasseh’s
case is recorded in the Bible that an aged sinner desiring to turn may not be cast
into despair, Amon’s case is recorded beside it that the young may not delay an
hour, lest they perish for ever.

III. one of us will be saved or lost in consequence of anything in our parents.—

Amon saw his father born again when he was old, but the son did not inherit his
father’s goodness. Josiah was the child of an ungodly parent, and yet he became a
godly child. These two lessons are plainly written in the history, the one to make the
presumptuous humble, the other to give the despairing hope: (1) a Christian father
cannot secure the safety of an unbelieving son, and (2) an unbelieving father cannot
drag down a child in his fall if that child follows the Lord.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Manasseh is the prodigal son of the Old Testament. He left his father’s house
and went into a far country, where he wasted his substance in evil ways. At last in
his distress he came to himself, saw what a fool he was, how he had sinned against
God, and then crept back to his father’s feet with tears and penitence. This is the
only way of hope when one has departed from God. The God of heaven can be
found by any one who is living in sin, however far down the grade he has gone, but
in all the world the only road that leads to this is the road of penitence. Manasseh
was forgiven—any sinner will be forgiven if he truly turns to God.’

(2) ‘It is pathetic to see one part of a life devoted to undoing, or trying to undo, what
the other part had done. How much better it is to begin right and give one’s whole
life to the things which are right and worthy! Penitence is better than sin, but
innocence and holiness are far better than penitence. The story of Manasseh does
not stand on the page in any sense as an example, but rather as a beacon, to warn
young men everywhere not to depart from God.’

PULPIT, "In his own house. The parallel has, "In the garden of his own house, in
the garden of Uzza;" i.e; with little doubt, what had been formerly the garden of one
Uzza.

Amon King of Judah

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two
years.

CLARKE, "Amon - reigned two years - See on 2Ki_21:19 (note).

HERY 21-25, "We have little recorded concerning Amon, but enough unless it were
better. Here is,
I. His great wickedness. He did as Manasseh had done in the days of his apostasy, v.
22. Those who think this an evidence that Manasseh did not truly repent forget how
many good kings had wicked sons. Only it should seem that Manasseh was in this
defective, that, when he cast out the images, he did not utterly deface and destroy them,
according to the law which required Israel to burn the images with fire, Deu_7:2. How
necessary that law was this instance shows; for the carved images being only thrown by,
and not burnt, Amon knew where to find them, soon set them up, and sacrificed to them.
It is added, to represent him exceedingly sinful and to justify God in cutting him off so
soon, 1. That he out-did his father in sinning: He trespassed more and more, 2Ch_
33:23. His father did ill, but he did worse. Those that were joined to idols grew more and
more mad upon them. 2. That he came short of his father in repenting: He humbled not
himself before the Lord, as his father had humbled himself. He fell like him, but did not
get up again like him. It is not so much sin as impenitence in sin that ruins men, not so
much that they offend as that they do not humble themselves for their offences, not the
disease, but the neglect of the remedy.
II. His speedy destruction. He reigned but two years and then his servants conspired
against him and slew him, 2Ch_33:24. Perhaps when Amon sinned as his father did in
the beginning of his days he promised himself that he should repent as his father did in
the latter end of his days. But his case shows what a madness it is to presume upon that.
If he hoped to repent when he was old, he was wretchedly disappointed; for he was cut
off when he was young. He rebelled against God, and his own servants rebelled against
him. Herein God was righteous, but they were wicked, and justly did the people of the
land put them to death as traitors. The lives of kings are particularly under the
protection of Providence and the laws both of God and man.

K&D 21-25, "The reign of Amon. Cf. 2Ki_21:19-26. - Both accounts agree; only in the
Chronicle, as is also the case with Manasseh and Ahaz, the name of his mother is
omitted, and the description of his godless deeds is somewhat more brief than in Kings,
while the remark is added that he did not humble himself like Manasseh, but increased
the guilt. In the account of his death there is nothing said of his funeral, nor is there any
reference to the sources of his history. See the commentary on 2Ki_21:19.

COFFMA, "As Ellison remarked, "There are only minor variations here from the
parallel in 2Kings. o motivation for the assassination is given. Amon may have
been the vicious son of a bad father, or it may have been out of disgust for his
following a discredited policy."[7]

"Amon was the unhappy product of his father's pagan life, not of his pious
death."[8]

ELLICOTT, "THE REIG OF AMO (2 Chronicles 33:21-25. Comp. 2 Kings

21:19-26).

(21) Amon was two and twenty years old.—So 2 Kings 21:19, which adds his
mother’s name and parentage.

GUZIK, "C. The reign of Amon, son of Manasseh.

1. (2 Chronicles 33:21-23) A two year, evil reign

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in
Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had
done; for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had
made, and served them. And he did not humble himself before the LORD, as his
father Manasseh had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.

a. He reigned two years in Jerusalem: This unusually short reign is an indication

that the blessing of God was not upon the reign of Amon.

b. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done . . . he
did not humble himself before the LORD, as his father Manasseh had: Amon sinned
as Manasseh had sinned, without having the repentance that Manasseh repented. It
is likely that one of the greatest sorrows to the repentant Mansseh was that his sons
and others who were influenced by his sin did not also repent.

i. “There is not one bright spot in this king’s character to relieve the darkness of his
life’s brief record.” (Knapp)

ii. “Glycas saith that Amon hardened himself in sin by his father’s example, who
took his swing in sin, and yet at length repented. So, thought he, will I do; wherefore
he was soon sent out of the world for his presumption, dying in his sins, as 2
Chronicles 33:23.” (Trapp)

iii. “Manasseh and Amon in their contrasting ways show that a fatalistic attitude in
the face of God’s judgment is quite unjustified.” (Selman)

PULPIT, "The long reign of Manasseh of fifty-five years—a signal and merciful
instance of space given for repentance—ended, his death met him presumably at the
age of sixty-seven. The son who succeeded him was twenty-two years old, born
therefore not before his father was forty-five years old. This may be an indication
that it was indeed not one son only whom Manasseh "caused to pass through the
fire" (verse 6). He emulated the sins of the former life of his father, but did not, like
him, repent. It will be noted that in verse 19 of the parallel his mother's name is
given as "Meshulle-meth, the daughter of Haruz, of Jotbah," of whom nothing is
known.

22 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father

Manasseh had done. Amon worshiped and offered
sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made.

CLARKE, "Sacrificed unto all the carved images - How astonishing is this!
with his father’s example before his eyes, he copies his father’s vices, but not his
repentance.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:22. He did that which was evil, as did Manasseh his
father — That is, as Manasseh had done in the days of his apostacy. They who think
the wickedness of Amon an evidence that Manasseh did not truly repent, forget how
many good kings had wicked sons. Manasseh, however, seems to have been very
deficient in this after his repentance, that when he cast out the images, he did not
utterly deface and destroy them, according to the law, which required them to burn
the images with fire, Deuteronomy 7:5. How necessary that law was, this instance
shows; for the carved images being only thrown by, and not burned, Amon,
knowing where to find them, soon set them up, and sacrificed to them.

ELLICOTT, "(22) For Amon sacrificed.—Literally, and to all the carven images
which Manasseh his father had made did Amon sacrifice. (Comp. 2 Kings 21:21,
“and he walked in all the way wherein his father had walked, and served the idols
which his father had served, and worshipped them.” Idols in the above passage is
gillulîm, “dunglings,” a term nowhere used by the chronicler.) The statement of our
text seems to imply that the “carven images” made by Manasseh had not been
destroyed, but only cast aside. (See ote on 2 Chronicles 33:15.) It argues a defect of
judgment to say with Reuss that the reforms of Manasseh are rendered doubtful by
it. The whole history is a succession of reforms followed by relapses; and the words
of the sacred writer need not be supposed to mean that the images which Amon
worshipped were the very ones which his penitent father had discarded, but only
images of the same imaginary gods.

23 But unlike his father Manasseh, he did not

humble himself before the Lord; Amon increased
his guilt.

CLARKE, "Trespassed more and more - He appears to have exceeded his father,
and would take no warning.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:23. And humbled not himself &c. — He fell, like his
father, but did not rise again like him. It is not so much sin, as impenitence in sin,
that ruins men; not so much that they have offended, as that they do not humble
themselves for, and forsake their offences; not the disease, but the neglect of the
remedy. But Amon trespassed more and more — Increased in wickedness of every
kind, and especially in his attachment to various and abominable idolatries. They
that were joined to idols, generally grew more and more mad upon them.

ELLICOTT, "(23) And humbled not himself . . . more and more.—This verse is
added by the chronicler.

But Amon trespassed more and more.—Literally, for he, Amon, multiplied trespass.

PARKER, ""But Amon trespassed more and more" ( 2 Chronicles 33:23).

It is wonderful what evil can be done under a profession of religion. Amon was
sacrificing unto all the carved images; he was so religious as to be irreligious; he
reached the point of exaggeration, and that point is blasphemy. Where there is mere
ignorance, God in his lovingkindness and tender mercy often closes his eyes as if he
could not see what is being done: but when it is not ignorance, but violence,
determination, real obstinacy in the way of evil, and utter recklessness as to what it
may cost,—what if God should be compelled to open his eyes, and look the evil man
full in the face, and condemn him by silent observation? It is wonderful, too, how
much evil can be done in a little time. othing is so easy as evil. A man could almost
fell a forest before he could grow one tree. Every blow tells; every bad word
becomes a great blot; there is an infinite contagion in evil; it affects every one, it
poisons quickly, it makes a harvest in the nighttime. To do good, how much time is
required! How few people will believe that we are doing good! We have to encounter
suspicion, criticism, distrust; men say, "We must wait to see the end; we cannot
believe in the possibility of all this earnestness and sacrifice;" they ask questions
about its probable permanence; even Christian men are apt to hinder others in
endeavouring to do good. But evil has no such disadvantages to contend with. There
is a consolidation in the forces of evil that is not. known among the forces of good. It
would seem as if the poet"s description were right—"Devil with devil damned, firm
concord holds." It may be that in that one energetic expression Milton has stated the
reality of the case. Still the good must be done little by little; we work an hour at a
time and see no result, but, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, we are
confident that every effort, how small soever, will come to fruitfulness in the issues
of the dispensation. Then, too, good is not so quickly added up as evil. Are we
altogether just in this matter of the determination of character? What is our policy?
It is easy of explanation; it is difficult to reconcile with the spirit of righteousness. It
runs thus: A man shall live twenty years an honest, upright, beneficent life; he shall
yield to a sudden temptation, and in that one act of evil the twenty years of good
shall go for nothing. Is that just? Is that as it ought to be? The answer will be this:
The one act of evil threw discredit upon the twenty years of apparent good. Is that
reason, or prejudice? Is it justice, or insanity? Is there no balance in life? Is there no
point at which things are reckoned on both sides and the issue is determined by the
Judge of the whole earth? Our custom is not so. A man shall do a thousand good
things, and they shall go for nothing in the presence of one proved apostacy; nay,
they shall go for very little in the presence of one suggested apostacy. All this needs
review. This cannot be right. Where is the balance? Where are the scales held by the
fingers of God?

It were surely an incredible miracle if one slip should blot out ten thousand
virtues—if one word should sink in oblivion a lifetime of prayer. Enough that the
question be raised, for it cannot now be settled; let some take comfort who may need
it herein. Society will be hard upon any one who has done a solitary evil if it has
been detected and proved. Society has no mercy; society cares not for the individual;
it is ruthless with the solitary offender. Blessed be God, society is not judge; the
Lord reigneth; he will tell us in the issue what the sum total of life"s mystery comes
to; and what if he shall see, what men never yet saw, the larger good, the completer
trust, the heart clinging all the time to Jesus and trusting in him wholly, though
there may have been parts of the nature straying and going almost to hell? Certain
it is that Amon made no secret of his departure from the ways of the right kings of
Judah; he revelled in trespass; and in so far as he did this openly he is to be
commended. There was no nightly poisoning of the fountain; he was no stealthy
offender going out on velvet feet, in the hour when deep sleep falls upon men, to
poison the well-head. Here is a man who rises early in the morning, strong to do evil,
with a most inventive mind, with the left hand as skilled as the right, and both hands
working earnestly and diligently in doing evil. There may be hope of such a man.
When Peter cursed and swore he was not far from weeping bitterly. It is when the
heart has its own chamber of imagery, its own secret doubts, well-concealed
blasphemies, that it would appear to be hopeless to work any miracle in it. When the
volcano bursts, explodes, pours out its lava, next season men may sow seed upon the
sides of the mountain, and the year after they may cull rich harvests on the slopes
down which the molten lava flowed. Some men may take heart because they have
been so bad. The prodigal shall have the fatted calf killed, because he is a prodigal
returned.

BI, "But Amon transgressed more and more.

Consolidation in the forces of evil
It is wonderful what evil can be done with a profession of religion. Amen was sacrificing
unto all the carved images; he was so religious as to be irreligious; he reached the point
of exaggeration, and that point is blasphemy. When there is mere ignorance, God in His
lovingkindness and tender mercy often closes His eyes as if He could not see what is
being done: but when it is not ignorance but violence, determination, real obstinacy in
the way of evil, and utter recklessness as to what it may cost—what if God should be
compelled to open His eyes, and look the evil man full in the face, and condemn him by
silent observation? It is wonderful, too, how much evil can be done in a little time.
Nothing is so easy as evil. A man could almost fell a forest before he could grow one tree.
Every blow tells: every bad word becomes a great blot: there is an infinite contagion in
evil; it affects every one, it poisons quickly, it makes a harvest in the night-time. To do
good how much time is required! How few people will believe that we are doing good!
We have to encounter suspicion, criticism, distrust; men say, “We must wait to see the
end; we cannot believe in the possibility of all this earnestness and sacrifice”; they ask
questions about its possible permanence; even good men are apt to hinder other good
men in endeavouring to do good. But evil has no such disadvantages to contend with.
There is a consolidation in the forces of evil that is not known among the forces of good.
It would seem as if the poet’s description were right—“Devil with devil damned, firm
concord holds.” It may be that in that energetic expression Milton has stated the reality
of the case. (J. Parker, D.D.)

24 Amon’s officials conspired against him and

assassinated him in his palace.
 CLARKE, "His servants conspired against him - On what account we cannot
tell.

BESO, "2 Chronicles 33:24. His servants conspired against him — He rebelled
against God, and his own servants rebelled against him, and that when he had
reigned but two years. Thus, though they were wicked, God was righteous. Perhaps
when he sinned, as his father did, in the beginning of his days, he promised himself
that he would repent, as his father had done, in the latter end of his days. But if so,
he was wretchedly mistaken, being cut off when he was young. And his case shows
what madness it is to presume upon repenting and turning to God when we are old.
Reader, behold, now is the accepted time! let it be to thee the day of salvation!
remember, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. To-day, then, hear his
voice, and harden not thy heart.

GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 33:24-25) The assassination of Amon.

Then his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house. But the
people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then
the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

a. His servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house: This story of
conspiracy and assassination seems to belong among the kings of Israel, not Judah.
Yet when the kings and people of Judah began to imitate the sins of their conquered
northern neighbors, they slipped into the same chaos and anarchy that marked the
last period of Israel’s history.

i. “Although the Scriptures give no reason for the conspiracy, its cause may lie
within the tangled web of revolts that Asurbanipal suppressed from 642-639 and
that caused him to turn his attention to the west. . . . Amnon’s death may thus reflect
a power struggle between those who wished to remain loyal to the Assyrian crown
and those who aspired to link Judah’s fortunes to the rising star of Psammetik I
(664-609) of Egypt’s Twenty-Sixth Dynasty.” (Patterson and Austel)

b. But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King
Amon: This was a hopeful sign. Up to this point, the people of Judah had largely
tolerated some 57 years of utterly wicked kings who led the nation in evil. ow it
seems that they wanted righteousness and justice instead of the evil they had lived
with for so long.

i. In some way, it could be said that the people of Judah had these wicked kings for
more than 50 years because that is what they wanted. God gave them the leaders
they wanted and deserved. ow, as the people of the kingdom turned towards
godliness, God will give them a better king.

c. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place: Though king
Amon was assassinated, God did not yet allow Judah to slip into the same pit of
anarchy that Israel had sunk into. Because of the righteous action of the people of
the land, there was no change of dynasty, and the rightful heir to the throne of
David received the throne.

i. “The only positive contribution Amon made to the history of Judah was to
produce one of the best kings to reign on the throne of Jerusalem.” (Dilday)

PULPIT, "His servants conspired. So also Joash and Amaziah had been punished,
the latter avenging the death of his father on those servants who had caused it (2
Kings 1:14 :5; 2 Chronicles 24:25, 2 Chronicles 24:26; 2 Chronicles 25:27).

25 Then the people of the land killed all who had

plotted against King Amon, and they made Josiah
his son king in his place.

CLARKE, "The people of the land slew all them - His murder was not a popular
act, for the people slew the regicides. They were as prone to idolatry as their king was.
We may rest satisfied that idolatry was accompanied with great licentiousness and
sensual gratifications else it never, as a mere religious system, could have had any sway
in the world.
For an explanation of the term groves, 2Ch_23:3, see the observations at the end of
2Ki_21:26 (note).
I have referred to the prayer attributed to Manasseh, and found in what is called the
Apocrypha, just before the first book of Maccabees. It was anciently used as a form of
confession in the Christian Church, and is still as such received by the Greek Church. It
is as follows: -

“O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
of their righteous seed, who hast made heaven and earth, with all the
ornament thereof; who hast bound the sea by the word of thy
commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible
and glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for
the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening
towards sinners is insupportable; but thy merciful promise is
unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of great
 compassion, long-suffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of
men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness, hast promised
repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee, and of
thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they
may be saved. Thou, therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, has
not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed
repentance unto me that am a sinner: for I have sinned above the number
of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied; my
transgressions are multiplied; and I am not worthy to behold and see the
height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities. I am bowed down
with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any
release; for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee. I did not
thy will, neither kept I thy commandments. I have set up abominations,
and have multiplied offenses. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine
heart, beseeching thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and
I acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore I humbly beseech thee, forgive
me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not in mine iniquities. Be not
angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me into
the lower parts of the earth. For thou art the God, the God of them that
repent; and in me thou wilt show all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me,
that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy. Therefore I will praise
thee for ever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do
praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. - Amen.”

The above translation, which is that in our common Bibles, might be mended; but the
piece is scarcely worth the pains.

ELLICOTT, "(25) Slew.—Smote. The verse is identical with 2 Kings 21:24, save
that it has “smote” plural instead of singular, which latter is more correct. It may be
that the facts thus briefly recorded represent a fierce conflict between the party of
religious reform and that of religious reaction, in which the latter was for the time
worsted and reduced to a state of suspended activity.

The chronicler has omitted the remarks usual at the end of a reign. See 2 Kings
21:25-26 for a reference to sources, and Anion’s burial place (“the garden of Uzza”).

PULPIT, "The people of the land. The emphatic expression here used (as also in the
parallel), with its repetition in same verse malting it more so, may either betray the
unfortunate sympathy that the worse element of the nation felt with the bad king
and his evil ways, or it may mean that the healthier element of the people insisted on
the right respect being observed to the proper succession. The conduct of Josiah
from very tender years, which could not have been entirely his own, but must be
credited in part to those who taught and influenced him, throws the balance of
probability, perhaps, into this latter and more charitable view. The parallel contains
two closing verses (25, 26) additional to what we have, giving the authority as the
"book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah," and stating that Amen also "was
buried in his sepulchre, in the garden of Uzza."

BI, "Josiah his son king in his stead.

Far-reaching heredity
Josiah was the son of Amon—which is equal to saying that the greatest sinner of his day
was the progenitor of one of the finest saints that ever prayed. If that is not a miracle,
what is meant by the term miracle? Read the account and say if it be not the reading of
music:—“And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the
ways of David his father” (2Ch_34:2) “and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the
left.” Then he had more fathers than one. That is the explanation. You are not the son of
the man that went immediately before you; you are only his son in a very incidental
manner. Josiah was the son of “David his father”—the larger father, the deeper root, the
elect of God; a sun fouled by many a black spot, but a shining orb notwithstanding. We
must enlarge our view if we would come to right conclusions regarding many mysteries.
Amen was but a link in the chain. The bad man here, or the good man there, taken in his
solitariness, is but a comparatively trivial incident in life’s tragedy. Heredity is not from
one to two; it is from one to the last; from the beginning to the ending. In every man
there lives all the humanity that ever lived. We are fearfully and wonderfully made—not
physically only, but morally, religiously, temperamentally. All the kings live in the last
king or the reigning monarch. We are one humanity. Solidarity has its lessons as well as
individuality. We know not which of our ancestors comes up in us at this moment or
that—now the tiger, now the eagle; now the praying mother, now the daring sire; now
some mean soul that got into the current by a mystery never to be explained; now the
cunning, watchful, patient deceiver, who can wait for nights at a time and never
complain of the dark or the cold, and now the hero that never had a fear, the
philanthropist that loved the world, the mother that never looked otherwise than God
Himself would have her look. We can never tell which of our ancestors is really thinking
in us, speaking through us; we cannot tell the accent of the immediate consciousness;—
these are mysteries, and when the judgment comes it will be based upon all the ground,
and not upon incidental points here and there (J. Parker, D. D.).

Footnotes:

2 Chronicles 33:18 That is, Judah, as frequently in 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 33:19 One Hebrew manuscript and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts of Hozai