Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 33:1
Manasseh [was] twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:
Ch. 2Ch 33:1-10 (Cp. 2Ki 21:1-16). Manasseh’s Reign. His Apostasy
1. in Jerusalem ] The Chronicler omits here the name of Manasseh’s mother, Hephzi-bah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ch 33:1
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 mans 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 heavens mercy is greater than mans 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. Manassehs 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 mans 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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXXIII
Manasseh reigns fifty-five years, and restores idolatry,
pollutes the temple, and practises all kinds of abominations,
1-9.
He and the people are warned in vain, 10.
He is delivered into the hands of the Assyrians, bound with
fetters, and carried to Babylon, 11.
He humbles himself, and is restored, 12, 13.
He destroys idolatry, and restores the worship of God, 14-16.
The people keep the high places, but sacrifice to the Lord on
them, 17.
His acts, prayer, and death, 18-20.
His son Amon succeeds him; and after a wicked idolatrous reign
of two years, is slain by his own servants in his own house,
21-24.
The people rise up, and slay his murderers, and make Josiah his
son king in his stead, 25.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIII
Verse 1. 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?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This and the following verses, to ver 11, are taken out of 2Ki 21:1 &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. Manasseh . . . did that whichwas evil in the sight of the Lord(See on 2Ki21:1-16).
2Ch33:11-19. HE ISCARRIED UNTO BABYLON,WHERE HEHUMBLES HIMSELFBEFORE GOD, AND ISRESTORED TO HISKINGDOM.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 comments on 2Ki 21:1].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 and (2Ch 33:3) instead of the sing. and (Kings), and (2Ch 33:6) instead of (see on 2Ch 28:3); by the addition of to , and of the name the Vale of Hinnom, 2Ch 33:6 (see on Jos 15:18, for ); by heaping up words for the law and its commandments (2Ch 33:8); and other small deviations, of which (2Ch 33:7) instead of (Kings) is the most important. The word , 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 probably denotes the statue of Asherah. The form for (2Ch 33:7) is not elsewhere met with.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Reign of Manasseh. | B. C. 662. |
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: 2 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. 3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. 4 Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 7 And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: 8 Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses. 9 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. 10 And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken.
We have here an account of the great wickedness of Manasseh. It is the same almost word for word with that which we had 2 Kings xxi. 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 (v. 2), ruined the established religion, unravelled his father’s glorious reformation (v. 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, v. 6. In contempt of the choice God had made of Sion to be his rest for ever and Israel to be his covenant-people (v. 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 (v. 9); for, if the uncle an 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, v. 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
See note on 2Ki 21:1
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES
IN discussing the First Book of Chronicles we called attention to the fact that according to Usshers chronology, the two Books, not reckoning the table of genealogy, covered a space of 468 years of history; the First Book only 41 of these, and this second, 427. As to the authorship of these Books, Ezra is commonly accepted.
The analysis of any book is largely the presentation of a personal view. One man divides this Second Book of Chronicles into two portions: The Reign of Solomon, chapters 1 to 9, and The Kings of Judah, chapters 10 to 36.
Scofield in his reference Bible, says of this Book: It falls into eighteen divisions, by reigns, from Solomon to the captivities; records the division of the kingdom of David under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and is marked by an ever growing apostasy, broken temporarily by reformations under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.
It is our purpose to follow neither of these divisions, however natural they may be, but to discuss the volume under three heads: Solomon and the Temple; Rehoboam and the Division, and the History of Judah.
SOLOMON AND THE TEMPLE
The Book opens with a declaration concerning the new king, And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly (2Ch 1:1).
The history that follows gives occasion to say several things concerning this marvelous man of immortal reputation:
First, Solomons kingship enjoyed an auspicious beginning. The man who ascends the throne under the favor of the Lord necessarily begins a reign of promise. If, as in Solomons case, he sensibly recognizes his responsibility and seeks wisdom from the only sufficient source, he adds greater certainty to his success. When, in addition to this, his objectives are high and God-honoring, the glory of his kingdom advances accordingly. Certainly, Solomons preparation to build the temple was not only a noble objective, but one in line with his kingly fathers purpose and prayers, and the great Heavenly Fathers will for him.
The interesting history here of gathering materials and appointing men for this marvelous construction is made more interesting still by the kings personal supervision and spiritual interest. It takes some courage to conduct war, and we believe it takes almost more courage and even a clearer sense of God, to build sanctuaries, make their appointments according to the Divine pleasure, and call the people to worship within the spacious rooms of the same. Yet, when you have read but five chapters of this Book, you find such a work complete, and are not in the least amazed or even surprised to read, The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God (2Ch 5:14).
It is doubtful whether any company of men have done more for the establishment of spirituality in the earth and for the strengthening of the souls of their fellows, than have those who brought sanctuaries into existence and led congregations of people to a genuine worship of the most high God.
The on-going of this Book reveals Solomons conscious dependence. When the altar was erected he stood by it with outstretched hands (2Ch 6:12). That is the attitude of prayer and possibly of adoration. When his lips parted to speak, he says,
O Lord God of Israel, there is no God tike Thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts:
Thou which hast kept with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him; and spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thine hand, as it is this day.
Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as Thou hast walked before Me (2Ch 6:14-16).
Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy Word be verified, which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant David (2Ch 6:17).
Then follows an appeal that Gods eyes should be open upon their house day and night; that His ears should hearken to the prayers made in that place, and if sin were committed, that forgiveness should be granted, and if the people fail before the face of the enemy because of sin that they also should be pardoned; that if heaven be shut up on the same ground, upon repentance the dearth should end.
Then he concludes in a more personal petition to Him:
Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:
Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive (2Ch 6:29-30).
These are only samples of the long petition that followed the dedicatory sermon. They wind up with a sentence like this: O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant (2Ch 6:42). It is a model prayer; it is the petition of a sincere soul; it is the cry of one who knows that the mercy and love of God are the only grounds of hope.
The further text records Solomons fame and death. That fame was based upon Solomons wisdom, accentuated doubtless by the magnificence of the temple, but made more honorable still in the extent of his organization, the luxury of his court and the wealth of his treasury.
Evidently, among the rulers of the earth, the queen of Sheba held conspicuous place, and when the fame of Solomon reached her, she came to prove him with her questions, and impress him with her own riches and glory. The difficult questions were satisfactorily answered, the temple was adequately shown, the table of the king groaned with its good meats, the apparel of the servants was profoundly impressive, and the queen said to the king,
It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:
Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.
Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, winch stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God (2Ch 9:5-8).
The compliment to the king is followed with a statement of Solomons annual income, the magnificence of his throne, the rich appointments of the palace, the extensive commercial importance of his kingdom, and the willing tributes of the earths lesser lords.
Then, as if the task of telling all was too great, we have this record,
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead (2Ch 9:29-31).
It is a surprising end, and yet strangely true to human history. How many men spend all their days in preparing to live, and when the preparation seems almost complete, proceed to die? The last enemy is no respecter of persons. His bow is drawn against the great as well as the humble, the rich as well as the poor, the wise as well as the ignorant. Death respects neither thrones nor kings; he holds the key to the palace room, and even to the throne room. Kings may command their humbler fellows, and even counsel their equals; but where death calls, they also obey.
REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION
The emptying of a throne is forever fraught with perils. The eternal and pertinent question is this, Who shall come after the king? The tenth chapter answered that concerning the throne of Israel. The answer was an ill omen! Rehoboams tyrannical spirit split the kingdom. When Jeroboam and all Israel came to him, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee (2Ch 10:4), they delicately referred to the increased taxation to which the luxurious court and the personal orgies of Solomon had given rise. They thought, as people commonly do, that the new rule would prove the peoples friend. Their hope was in vain.
The old men, former counselors of Solomon, advised kindness and compassion; but the young bloods, spoiled by their fellowship with royalty, counseled increased oppression; and under their influence he said,
My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (2Ch 10:14).
It was enough. The war was on; and that war has never ended until this day, for Israel and Judah are not yet one. A man who divides brethren and sets them to battle, little understands the infinite reach of his mischief. The father of Modernism in America, when he fell asleep at a comparatively early age, little dreamed that he had set influences to work that would divide every denomination on the continent, destroy the fellowship of men who loved one another as twins are commonly supposed to love, wreck schools and churches by the thousand, and start a war that may easily exceed the famous Hundred Year War of history.
Israel and Judahblood brothersbecame the bitterest of enemies. For some reason Second Chronicles pays little attention to Israel, but proceeds to trace Judahs history to the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, or through a period of almost a half millennium. The family feud occasionally projects itself into the record, but for the most part, Israel is forgotten, and the doings of Judah are recorded in detail.
The explanation of this is found in the circumstance that Jeroboam rejected the worship of Jehovah (2Ch 11:14-15). When God is once put away, when Gods priest is disposed of, and His minister is heard no more, then degeneracy compels a declining record.
Unitarianism three quarters of a century ago denied the Lord. Its history has amounted to little; and if it were recorded, it would simply prove, as the Jeroboam movement, a breeding place of apostasy; and yet this record regards not one apostasy only, but two.
The man of many favors may forget God.
When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him (2Ch 12:1).
What a sad commentary on the uncertainty and unstability of human nature! The explanation of Rehoboams failure has fitted thousands, yea millions of cases. He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord (2Ch 12:14). Of all disappointments, none exceed thisto begin well and end badly; to give promise and create disappointment; to be the subject of Divine favor, and become the slave of Gods adversary.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAH
Chapters 11 to 36 contain the roster of kings. The fortunes of the country answer accurately and inevitably to the characters of their rulers. On the whole, the history is a down-grade. In that respect, it runs true to form. The doctrine of evolution may find an illustration in national life if it goes from the simple to the complex, but in so far as it contends for improvement, history fails to illustrate it. Degeneracy of nations has more often taken place than has social and moral progress.
The foundations of Judah were laid under David; the kingdoms glory appeared under Solomon. From that moment until this, one word expresses Judahs coursedecline.
Africa was once an advanced nation, now a heathen one; Italy once ruled the world, now she holds an inconspicuous place; Greece once represented the climax of physical and mental accomplishment, now she boasts neither. The reasons for decline are varied, but in Judah they were one the God who had made her great was too often forgotten, too willingly offended. When the nations neglect the source of their strength, weakness naturally ensues. Judahs strength was in the Lord, and when her kings forgot Him, despised His Word, entered into unholy alliances that were followed by the people, her fame declined, and her land fainted.
The mixed social condition manifested her sinfulness. We have a phrase, Like people, like priest. We can paraphrase that, Like princes, like people. The study of these kings results in no compliment to human nature. Some of them were utterly evil; most of them were a mixture of the good and bad; two or three of them were sound. Among the utterly evil ones, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiakin held first place. The ones that represent a mixture of good and bad were Jeroboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jehoiakim; while the truly good consisted of Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. In all probability the reign of each of these good kings was profoundly affected and made spiritually fruitful by the ministry of Isaiah, the greatest preacher among Old Testament Prophets. It is perhaps a fact of history that no rulers have ever proven faithful to God without the stimulating and salutary influence of the Gospel ministry.
The judgments and mercies of Second Chronicles alike vindicate Jehovah. In this record wickedness does not go unpunished; and yet it is a marvelous revelation of Divine mercy.
There is never the least sign of penitence on the part of the ruler and the people without an immediate and generous response from Jehovah.
When Jehoshaphat declined in his loyalty and effected a sinful coalition with Ahab, judgment fell; but instantly upon his repentance, mercy was shown. Judgment is always and everywhere Gods strange work, the work in which He takes no pleasure. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze 33:11).
Mercy is His nature, His essential character, for to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Pro 28:13).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter is parallel with 2 Kings 21., yet differs in omitting some things and adding new matter, especially in central part. Impiety of Man. (2Ch. 33:1-10); his captivity and repentance (2Ch. 33:11-17); his end (2Ch. 33:18-20). Amon (2Ch. 33:21-25).
2Ch. 33:1-10.Manassehs revival of idolatry. Named after a tribe of Israel, born after his fathers recovery. Evil, through influence of those around him. 2Ch. 33:3. Built (2Ki. 18:4); groves, one in 2Ki. 21:3-7, that which was intruded into the temple. 2Ch. 33:4. House, i.e., within precincts of temple and in its courts (2Ch. 33:5). 2Ch. 33:6. Through fire, like Ahaz (2Ch. 28:3); observed, bewitched with an evil eye; enchantments, serpent charms; accustomed to all the black arts of the day. 2Ch. 33:7. Carved, in Ki. wooden stock of Ashtoreth. 2Ch. 33:8. Appointed, fixed. 2Ch. 33:9. Err, by example and conduct. 2Ch. 33:10. Spake, full account 2Ki. 21:10-15.
2Ch. 33:11-17.Manassehs cap. and repentance. Thorns, among which he hid himself for refuge (1Sa. 13:6); some among the living, i.e., took him alive; others which took M. cap. with rings. 2Ch. 33:12. Besought, lit. stroked or smoothed the face of the Lord (cf. Exo. 32:11; 1Sa. 13:11; 1Ki. 13:6; Dan. 9:13). 2Ch. 33:14. Wall, rebuilt or repaired. Gihon, 2Ch. 32:4; fishgate, near N.E. corner of lower city; went round to Ophel. 2Ch. 33:15. Strange (2Ch. 33:3-5); idol of 2Ch. 33:7. 2Ch. 33:16. Repaired, desecrated, or damaged altar. 2Ch. 33:17. High places (2Ch. 31:1), prohibited that there might be one national altar.
2Ch. 33:18-20.Manassehs end. Prayer, preserved in some MSS. of Sept., no claim to be considered the genuine utterance of Jewish king. The composition of an Hellenistio Jew, well acquainted with the Sept., writing at a time probably not much anterior to the Christian Era [Speak. Com.]. 2Ch. 33:19. Seers, of Hozai (marg.), a prophet of the time. 2Ch. 33:20. House, fuller in 2Ki. 21:18. Reason not known.
2Ch. 33:21-25.Amons reign and end. A. re-established the idolatries which his father put aside; met the fate of Joash and Amaziah from his servants, at whose death executive government was suspended.
HOMILETICS
MANASSEHS WICKEDNESS.2Ch. 33:1-9
Hezekiahs reformation not completed by successors, lost its influence upon manners of people. Corruption and vice increased and openly practiced by degenerate leaders. Young king trained up in idolatry and introduced abominations when he became ruler.
I. Wickedness determined in its spirit. He wrought much wickedness. A liberal patron and zealous adept in Chaldean arts and imposture. Multiplied sins privately and publicly. Determined, energetic, and violent in his career. Did wickedness with both hands earnestly.
II. Wickedness awful in its extent. Upset his fathers reforms, increased idolatrous customs, raised soothsayers to dignity in his count filled the land with altars of Baal, and outraged all decency by putting an image of Asherah in the very precincts of the temple dedicated to the true worship of God.
III. Wickedness exceptional in its nature. He practised sorcery and necromancy, and restored the fires of Tophet. He made Judah do worse than the heathen. He became a cruel persecutor, and his reign a reign of terror. Streets of Jerusalem ran with innocent blood. His name became in Jewish annals the synonym of infamy (cf. 2Ki. 21:16). Sins terrible in themselves, inexcusable in Manasseh, and most fruitful of evil!
IV. Wickedness unchecked by Divine warnings. The Lord spake to M. and to his people, but they would not hearken (2Ch. 33:10). God about to destroy, not build and defend the city! Line and plummet threatened. Destruction would be entire and unhindered by any destroying angel. People taken away as a prey and a spoil. M. himself a captive in chains and carried to Babylon. A punishment deserved, sent in mercy, and brought repentance and restoration.
MANASSEHS REPENTANCE.2Ch. 33:10-13
Exact time of Manassehs confinement in dungeon of Babylon not known, but narrative one of deepest interest, one which reveals the glory of unparalleled mercy. The hardships, the loneliness, the disgrace of captivity were good for M.
I. An exception in youthful experience. The remarkable distinction of his career is that he is the only case clearly recorded in the Scriptures of a youth breaking away from the restraints and example of a religious parentage, who was recovered by the grace of God, and brought to repentance [A. Phelps, D.D.].
II. It was sincere in its character. The misery and solitude of prison led to calm reflection.
1. His humility was great. The iron entered his soul. He recalled the days of childhood, thought of scenes of blood and cries of the murdered. The stars of heaven, which he had sinfully worshipped, shone in the dark prison to remind him of his guilt. He saw the vileness of his actions and the evil of his heart. He humbled himself greatly.
2. His prayer was earnest. He humbly besought God for pardon; implored for opportunity to evince the sincerity of his sorrow. God heard, and restored him; was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
III. It was permanent in its results. On his return he exerted himself to the uttermost to correct errors of his reign, and establish the worship of God in former purity and splendour.
1. He was concerned for the temporal welfare of the kingdom. Repaired the old walls of the city, added a new one; surrounded and fortified the hill of Ophel; strengthened, garrisoned, and provisioned the fenced cities of Judah.
2. He endeavoured to practise and promote religion among the people. In remembrance of former evils, among multitudes who had been former associates, and perhaps amid scoffs and taunts of ignominious capture and disgraceful imprisonment, he purged the land and the temple from idolatry; repaired the altar of Jehovah, and sacrificed peace-offerings upon it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.
IV. It is most encouraging to others. A wonderful display of Gods mercy. A proof that the Divine mercy, says Stanley, far exceeds the Divine vengeance, and that even from the darkest reprobation the free will of man and the grace of God may achieve a deliverance. If Manasseh could be restored, there was no one against whom the door of repentance and restitution was finally closed.
MANASSEHS LIFE AND ITS LESSONS
I. That the sins of parents arrested in one generation may appear in another. As diseases pass over some, and reappear in others, so wickedness, thought to be extinct, assumes its virulence, and brings forth its fruit.
II. That when children of godly parents sin they often become worse than others. M. went further, and more guilty of excess, than heathens around him. M. seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
III. That God exercises providential checks to prevent these sins. Thus far men can only go. The end often distant, but certain, when God designs to restore.
1. To fulfil his covenant.
2. To illustrate his mercy. Paul obtained mercy as a pattern to others, a form sketch to imitate, to be filled up by others (1Ti. 1:16).
3. To reveal his nature. Then M. knew that the Lord he was God.
IV. That in the conversion of M. we have encouragement to labour and pray for the salvation of sinners. Give none up in despair. Gods power omnipotent, and his grace sufficient. Augustine, Newton, Bunyan, &c. This should be the theme of preaching as it is the doctrine of Scripture. After teaching theology for forty years, the elder Alexander said: The longer I live, the more I incline to sum up my theology in the single sentence, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
HEZEKIAH AND MANASSEH: A CONTRAST
We have in end of one and beginning of the other a magnificent sunset and a sunrise of quite an opposite description. A good father and king closing life in Hezekiah; a bad son and successor commencing life in Manasseh. I. Consider Hez. and what we learn about him.
1. That genuine goodness shall not want appropriate record and remembrance.
2. God the inspirer of goodness in the hearts of men will not forget it.
3. The beneficiaries of goodness will not be unmindful of their benefactors.
4. Sympathetic imitators will mirror forth their goodness from whom they have derived its idea and impulse. II. Now turn to Man and what the history says about him.
1. A youthful king.
2. A long reign.
3. A life of great wickedness. Application:
1. What may parents learn from the son of such a father? Hez. hoarded up wealth for his son. Did he undervalue the moral element in him?
2. What may subjects learn from the successor of such a king? Not to trust religion to princes who may be alternately reformers and destroyers [J. Spencer Hill].
LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF THREE KINGS.2Ch. 33:21-25
I. Manasseh. There is no limit to the mercy of God. Sinners chief, welcome to complete forgiveness. If only great saints got into heaven great sinners would lose hope. But when we see M. 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 Gods grace into a snare. As Manassehs case is recorded in the Bible that an aged sinner desiring to turn may not be cast into despair, Amons case, recorded beside it, that the young may not delay an hour, lest they perish for ever.
III. None will be lost or saved in consequence of anything in our parents. Amon saw his father born again when old, but the son did not inherit his fathers goodness. Josiah the child of an ungodly parent, yet he became a godly child. Two lessons plainly written in the historyone to make presumptuous humble, the other to give despairing hope:
(1) a converted father cannot secure the safety of an unconverted son;
(2) an unconverted father cannot drag down a child in his fall if that child follows the Lord [W. Arnot, Fam. Treasury].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.
2Ch. 33:1. Reigned fifty-and-five years.
1. For the punishment of peoples sins.
2. That he might have time enough to amend his own life.
3. That in him, as afterwards in Paul, God might show forth all longsuffering [Trapp].
2Ch. 33:8. Israel fixed in Gods house and in the land.
1. Fixed by Gods appointment, not their own choice or preference.
2. Fixed conditionally. Only if they will observe, &c.
3. Ejected by violation of conditional promise.
2Ch. 33:9. M. seduced. The power of example. Ahaz. abandoned worship of God, but did not seduce generality of his subjects. Manassehs influence carried the whole nation with him into idolatry. Evil examples like pestilential diseases.
2Ch. 33:11-13. M.s conversion.
1. Affliction its occasion. This designed. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them. When the rod spoke he heard it (Mic. 6:9) who would not hear the word (2Ch. 5:10). God sent him into the dungeon to repent; as he did David into the depths, and Jonah into the whales belly to pray. Adversity hath whipt many a soul into heaven, which otherwise prosperity had coached to hell [Trapp].
2. Prayer its accompaniment. He besought the Lord. His affections, like Ben-hadads best counsellors, sent M. with a cord about his neck, to the merciful King of Israel [Trapp].
3. Amendment its fruits. Complete reversal of former policy; zeal in destruction of idols, and in worship of God; public example and encouragement to others to do right. Fruits meet for repentance.
2Ch. 33:17. People did sacrifice. The force of habit, (a) To withstand good example; (b) To resist religious influences; and (c) To despise Divine warnings. Easier to corrupt than to reform men, and difficult to break off evil customs and forsake religious superstitions.
2Ch. 33:17-18. A dark day and a bright sunset. Here is an unostentatious, unhonoured, and unepitaphed grave. We have to trace in this case a sunrise of promise, soon obscured with clouds of guilt and crime. These clouds burst in floods of penitence and sorrow. A meridian of sudden brilliancy follows. The sky clears, and the orb of a chequered life sets cloudless and serene on the hills of Judah. Standing by his grave, let us considerI. Manassehs sin. Look at
(1) His early training. Hezekiah would well bring him up;
(2) The baneful influence his creed and example had on his subjects;
(3) His repeated and obdurate rejection of Divine warning. II. His conversion. His dungeon became the gate of heaven. Note here the wonderful power of sanctified affliction. III. His new life. The grand test of the reality of conversion is the regenerated being. The tree is known by its fruits. We read that when God brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom, then M. knew that the Lord He was God [Dr. Macduff].
2Ch. 33:20. Buried in house, in the garden of his own house (2Ki. 21:18). The sepulchre in the garden (cf. Joh. 19:41).
2Ch. 33:21-25. Amon trespassed more and more, lit., multiplied trespasses.
1. He began early. Early in age and in reign. Only twenty-two, only two years in Jerusalem.
2. He did much in the time. To do good much effort, time, and sacrifice required. Easy to do evil, which spreads quickly and makes a harvest in short season. How then was Manasseh dead? In what sense was Manasseh buried? Here is an active boy who has caught his mantle, and is working with redoubled industry [Dr. Parker]. The evil that men do lives after them.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 33
2Ch. 33:1-7. Did evil. It was the misfortune of Manasseh to pass the most critical period of his life, the transition from youth to manhood, in an atmosphere so fraught with moral corruption, unfavourable to the formation of manly sentiments, holy purposes, and virtuous habitsa court, the court of a youth, himself the victim of a deadly miasma; the beams of his own glory exhaled under such influences, and the better impressions of earlier teachings were speedily erased; and he emerges into notice a worldling and an idolater, a stain upon his countrys annals, for fifty years a scourge and corrupter, himself at last saved, but only in the furnace of affliction and so as by fire [Rev. R. Hallam, D.D.].
2Ch. 33:11-13. When in affliction. Methinks I hear God say, Take this medicine; it is exactly fitted to the case, prepared and weighed by my own hands. Adams (Priv. Thoughts) sin the disease, Christ the physician, pain the medicine [Cecil]. By pain God drives me to prayer, teaches me what prayer is, inclines me to pray [Adams].
Prayer is a creatures strength, his very breath and being;
Prayer is the golden key that can open the wicket of mercy.
2Ch. 33:21-24. Did evil. M. might repent and reformay, and be accepted by God; but could he undo the consequencesthe effects upon othersof his life and wickedness? May as well expect to prevent the appearance of disease after having used every effort to spread infection. The father may turn to God in true sorrow, but the son he begat shall follow in his parents course of evil and never turn from it. Oh. how fearful a thing is sin! If we put our hands to it, we know not what we do. The thought of the irrevocable, irremediable consequences of sin should help to keep us from sinning [M. J.].
How many, all weak and withered of their force,
Wait on the verge of dark eternity,
Like stranded wrecks!
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
15. THE REIGN OF MANASSEH. (2Ch. 33:1-19)
TEXT
2Ch. 33:1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. 2. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, after the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel. 3. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. 4. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. 5. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah. 6. He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practised augury, and used enchantments, and practised sorcery, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. 7. And he set the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God 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, will I put my name for ever: 8. neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses. 9. And Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil more than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel.
10. And Jehovah spake to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed. 11. Wherefore Jehovah brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. 12. And when he was in distress, he besought Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13. And he 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 Jehovah he was God.
14. Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he compassed Ophel about with it, and raised it up to a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah. 15. And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of Jehovah, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of Jehovah, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16. And he built up the altar of Jehovah, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace-offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah, the God of Israel. 17. Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only unto Jehovah their God.
18. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel. 19. His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
PARAPHRASE
2Ch. 33:1. Manasseh was only twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years, in Jerusalem. 2. But it was an evil reign, for he encouraged his people to worship the idols of the heathen nations destroyed by the Lord when the people of Israel entered the land. 3. He rebuilt the heathen altars his father Hezekiah had destroyedthe altars of Baal, and of the shame-images, and of the sun, moon, and stars. 4, 5. He even constructed heathen altars in both courts of the Temple of the Lord, for worshiping the sun, moon, and starsin the very place where the Lord had said that he would be honored forever. 6. And Manasseh sacrificed his own children as burnt offerings in the Valley of Hinnom. He consulted spirit-mediums, too, and fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and encouraged every sort of evil, making the Lord very angry. 7. Think of it! He placed an idol in the very Temple of God, where God had told David and his son Solomon, I will be honored here in this Temple, and in Jerusalemthe city I have chosen to be honored forever above all the other cities of Israel. 8. And if you will obey my commandsall the laws and instructions given to you by MosesI wont ever again exile Israel from this land which I gave your ancestors. 9. But Manasseh encouraged the people of Judah and Jerusalem to do even more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed when Israel entered the land.
10. Warnings from the Lord were ignored by both Manasseh and his people. 11. So God sent the Assyrian armies, and they seized him with hooks and bound him with bronze chains and carted him away to Babylon. 12. Then at last he came to his senses and cried out humbly to God for help. 13. And the Lord listened, and answered his plea by returning him to Jerusalem and to his kingdom! At that point Manasseh finally realized that the Lord was really God!
14. It was after this that he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David and the wall from west of the Spring of Gihon in the Kidron Valley, and then to the Fish Gate, and around Citadel Hill, where it was built very high. And he stationed his army generals in all of the fortified cities of Judah. 15. He also removed the foreign gods from the hills and took his idol from the Temple and tore down the altars he had built on the mountain where the Temple stood, and the altars that were in Jerusalem, and dumped them outside the city. 16. Then he rebuilt the altar of the Lord and offered sacrifices upon itpeace offerings and thanksgiving offeringsand demanded that the people of Judah worship the Lord God of Israel. 17. However, the people still sacrificed upon the altars on the hills, but only to the Lord their God.
18. The rest of Manassehs deeds, and his prayer to God, and Gods reply through the prophetsthis is all written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 19. His prayer, and the way God answered, and a frank account of his sins and errors, including a list of the locations where he built idols on the hills and set up shame-idols and graven images (this of course was before the great change in his attitude) is recorded in The Annals of the Prophets.
COMMENTARY
Hezekiah had a wicked father; even so, he served God well. The son born late in Hezekiahs life-time proved to be as wicked as his grandfather, Ahaz.[75] A fathers wickedness or righteousness does not guarantee the same character in his offspring. Manasseh began to reign at the age of twelve and he was to have the responsibility of the longest reign (55 years) among the kings of Judah. After Hezekiah there was to be only one more good king in Judah, namely, Josiah. Manasseh hurried the kingdom toward its ultimate destiny. Without restraint Manasseh brought in the gods of the nations. High places, heathen altars, Baalim, Asheroth, passing children through the fire were fully sanctioned by the king. Altars to gods were once more set up in Jehovahs Temple.[76] The host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars and worshiped as deities. Fortune-telling, astrology, contact with the dead (familiar spirits) were all practiced openly with the governments consent. Instead of leading Judah toward God, Manasseh seduced his people and they became more wicked than the native Canaanites with whom Joshua had contended in his day.
[75] Elmslie, W. A. L., The Interpreters Bible, Vol. Ill, p. 533.
[76] Schaff, Philip, Langes Commentary, Chronicles, p. 262.
Jehovah spake to Manasseh most likely through prophets. There was no inclination to hear God. The Assyrians came and took Manasseh captive. They bound him like a criminal and he was utterly humiliated. In captivity the king came to his senses, repented of his sins and Jehovah mercifully restored him to the throne in Jerusalem. After returning to Jerusalem Manasseh attempted to fill his office honorably. The walls of Jerusalem were strengthened. Gihon was in the Kidron valley just east of Ophel. The fish gate was in the south-east sector of the wall of the city. The king began to cleanse the city of its idols and he also removed gods and altars from Jehovahs Temple. He worshiped Jehovah at the altar designated for this devotion He was not able to centralize all Jehovah worship at the Temple. Some Jehovah worship was conducted at high places in the city and the country. The prayer of Manasseh was regarded as very important. Careful records of this prayer were kept in the annals of his reign. Hozai may be a proper name. It also means seers. A seer was a prophet, one who spoke for God to man. These persons also kept written records about important events. Manassehs wickedness was also a part of the record of his life. The good he accomplished did not erase the evil he had done. He probably was not granted the highest burial honors in that he was buried in his own house.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Manasseh’s Wickedness
v. 1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem, v. 2. 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. v. 3. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down, v. 4. Also, he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall My name be forever. v. 5. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, v. 6. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, v. 7. And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, v. 8. neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, v. 9. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, v. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
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 2Ki 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.
2Ch 33:1
The parallel adds the name of Manasseh’s mother, the well-omened name Hephzibah, “My delight is in her” (Isa 62:4).
2Ch 33:2
The abominations of the heathen (see Deu 18:9-14).
2Ch 33:3
He built again; literally, returned and builtthe ordinary Hebrew idiom for “took again to building,” etc. Made groves; i.e. as often before the stocks that set forth Ashtoreth (Deu 16:21). The parallel gives prominence to the one Asherah, ten times offensive, as set up in the house of the Lord (2Ch 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.
2Ch 33:4
In Jerusalem (so 2Ch 6:6; 2Ch 7:16). The quotation is from Deu 12:11.
2Ch 33:6
Caused his children. Parallel (2Ki 21:6), “his son,” in the singular number (see also 2Ki 16:3 compared with our 2Ch 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 2Ch 18:21 and Deu 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: 2Ki 3:27; 2Ki 17:17; Eze 20:26; Mic 6:7; Amo 5:26; Jer 7:32; Jer 19:4; Eze 16:20; Eze 20:26. In the valley of the son of Hinnom (Jos 15:8; Jos 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 (1Ki 11:7). Consult also our 2Ch 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 . This root is found once in piel infinitive (Gen 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, ; 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 Deu 18:10; the five occasions of the use of the word in Genesis, however (Gen 30:27; Gen 44:5, Gen 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, ; Revised Version, and practised sorcery. The word is found six times in piel. The prohibition is found in Deu 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; Deu 20:6, 27; Deu 18:11. See as illustrations 1Sa 28:3-21; and notice the language of Isa 8:19, “that chirp and mutter;” and Isa 19:3.
2Ch 33:7, 2Ch 33:8
(Comp. Psa 132:13, Psa 132:14; 2Sa 7:10.)
2Ch 33:7
A carved image, the idol; translate, a carved image of the idol; i.e. the Asherah; for see the parallel (2Ki 21:7). The idol; Hebrew, . This name is found here and in 2Ch 33:15; in Deu 4:16, translated (Authorized Version) “figure;” and Eze 8:3, Eze 8:5, translated (Authorized Version) “image.”
2Ch 33:10
(See parallel, 2Ch 33:11-15.)
2Ch 33:11
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 2Ch 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 2Ki 19:28, where the same word is used; as also in Exo 35:22; Isa 37:29; Eze 19:4, Eze 19:9; Eze 29:4; Eze 38:4).
2Ch 33:13
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 themthese 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 idolatryblood of noble martyrs.
2Ch 33:14
The wall without; or, Revised Version, the outer wall, is probably one with that of Hezekiah (2Ch 32:5), which now Manasseh repairs, or rebuilds, and perhaps lengthens as well as heightens. The fish gate (Neh 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 (2Ch 27:3), “Jotham built much.” Hezekiah also built much there, and now Manasseh raised it up a very great height.
2Ch 33:15
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 2Ch 33:3-7.
2Ch 33:17
Compare Hezekiah’s good work (2Ch 31:1) with his son’s bad work (2Ch 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.
2Ch 33:18
The parallel again obtains (2Ki 21:17, 2Ki 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 (2Ki 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.
2Ch 33:20
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.
2Ch 33:21
The long reign of Manasseh of fifty-five yearsa signal and merciful instance of space given for repentanceended, 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.
2Ch 33:24
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 (2Ki 1:14 :5; 2Ch 24:25, 2Ch 24:26; 2Ch 25:27).
2Ch 33:25
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.”
HOMILETICS
2Ch 33:1-20
Uncertain repentances.
While the father Hezekiah filled one of the niches of the throe typical best kings, his son Manasseh, the thirteenth King of Judah, by mournful contrast, occupies one of those of the three worst of all the kings of both lines, the other two being Jeroboam and Ahab. His reign, filling the longest space of all, viz. fifty-five years, occupies but a very unequal space on the page of the present history, and a yet shorter in the parallel (2Ki 21:1-18). Eventful as it was, its eventfulness was of such a character that the historians may be pardonably credited with the very natural disposition to get over it as quickly as was possible. But from another point of view, the brevity marks significantly enough one unrelieved tale, one catalogued accumulation of personal sin, and sin against his high office and position, sin against his nation, and that sinsome of the worst of all sinwhich consisted in seducing (verse 9 and 2Ki 21:9) others to sin. The phenomena spread before the student in this chapter exhibit the King Manasseh
I. TOUCHING THE LOWEST DEPTHS OF SIN THAT HAD DISTINGUISHED EITHER THRONE OF THE RENDED KINGDOM. The following particulars may be identified, as e.g.:
1. The general type of his evil work resembled him to “the heathen, whom God” had actually driven out as intolerable, while making room in the land for his own people.
2. The evil work which he did was an undoing of good work, and that the good of his own father before him. “He built again what Hezekiah his father had broken down” (verse 3).
3. The evil work which he did was so much worse than that of King Ahaz (2Ch 28:24), who shut up “the house of the Lord,” in that it proceeded to the sacrilegious profanity of “building altars” for idolatrous worship, and “for all the host of heaven” in that house itself, “whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my Name be for ever.” In “that house” also he set “a carved image idol.”
4. The evil work which he did was a persuading and seducing of the people (over whom he was presumably shepherd) to sin, so strong as to amount to little less than compulsion. Note how often the peculiar circumstances surrounding a tempter’s tempting make the tempting so called, in nothing appreciable to fall short of compulsion. The serpent’s tempting of Eve was discretion itself as compared with the brute force and the overpowering force with which evil and sin itself are proffered (?) to the mind, heart, hand, of many a helpless one, many a helpless thousand in the vortex of modern civilization, its methods and systems.
5. The evil work did not shrink or stay before the enormity of “shedding innocent blood” (2Ki 21:16)that triumph of devilishnessbut e’en carried it to such excess that could make it possible for the historian to write, that with the wickedness “he filled Jerusalem from one end to another,” making it to ring again with its sorrows and “cries from the ground,” and with his sin.
II. WARNED IN AN EXCEPTIONALLY FORCIBLE MANNER. Allusion is made to this interposition in our verses 10, 18; but fuller information respecting it is given in 2Ki 21:10-15, and especially 2Ki 21:12, 2Ki 21:13, in language that has indeed made its mark. For the expression (2Ki 21:12), “both his ears shall tingle,” see 1Sa 3:11; Jer 19:3; and upon the latter verse (Jer 19:13), see Rogers’s ‘Superhuman Origin of the Bible,’ p. 268 (1st edit; 8vo). Note what real force, though so often neglected, “warning” should be.
III. SUFFERING THE MOST ABJECT DEGRADATION OF CAPTURE AND HUMILIATION OF PUNISHMENT. This is expressed in Jer 19:11, compared with 2Ki 19:28; Amo 4:2; Job 41:2; see also again Rogers’s ‘ Superhuman Origin of the Bible,’ p. 286. The retribution in the mode and the place of punishment is to be observed. It is the Assyrians who carry him away, but his captivity is to Babylon.
IV. HIS EXCEEDING HUMBLING OF HIMSELF WITH ENTREATIES AND PRAYER BEFORE GOD IN HIS AFFLICTION, AND BECAUSE OF AFFLICTION. There are sufficient reasons for believing that there were present alike some penitence and some repentance in this humbling of himself, and beseeching “of the Lord his God,” and “prayer to the God of his fathers.” For God heard the prayer, in some sense also undeniably answered it,brought Manasseh again to Jerusalem and to his throne there. It is also said that Manasseh came to be convinced of what he should never have doubted, that “the Lord he was God” (verse 13); that he reversed his former idolatrous practices and commands, cast out idols and altars from the city, repaired God’s altar and offered peace offerings and thank offerings (verses 15, 16), and began other useful works for the defence of Jerusalem and his country. If he cleared himself, however, it is plain that he could not succeed in winning the people away with a perfect heart from “the high places,” and their sacrifices and worship there (verse 17), which temptation it was he who had again put in their way at the beginning. How often has God’s ready mercy and abundant pity run to meet and to help and to receive a penitence that did not prove itself after all pungent and intrinsically deep and lasting! How often does he still manifest himself thus “ready to forgive,” while the strictest and severest self- searchings of our own hearts as to their sincerity and purity remain to be challenged! It is indeed to be noted, and it is a thing unexplained, and painfully, warningly suggestive, that one of the inspired histories (our parallel) has not a single word to say of his repentance and amendment; as though, whatever it were personally, and not a case “where tears of penance came too late for grace” for the individual, yet such repentance was all too late to rehabilitate his character, redeem his reign, or undo for a miserable nation the worst of his sins’ consequences!
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
2Ch 33:1-9
The apostate.
Well indeed was it for King Hezekiah that he did not foresee, though he may have feared (see previous homily), the character and the course of his son and successor. Had he done so, not all his riches and honour, not all his treasuries and storehouses, not all his flocks and herds, not all his watercourses and other works, would have removed sorrow from his heart. There has never, in any land, been a greater change, a sadder reaction, than that experienced by Judah when the godly Hezekiah was succeeded by the apostate Manasseh. It is true, indeed
I. THAT PITY AS WELL AS BLAME MAY BE EXTENDED TO THE YOUNG KING. He was but twelve when he ascended the throne of Judah. He was far too young to encounter the peculiar temptations of sovereignty; and there was much excuse for him if, at that tender age, he allowed his own youthful inclinations to be overborne by the counsels of those so much older and so much more experienced than himself. In view of his circumstances, we may commiserate as much as we condemn him. No one need wish to occupy a higher position than his years, his experience, his training, have fitted him to fill. Its honours and its emoluments, however great they may he, are of no account at all in view of the immense disadvantage at which such a one is placed, and of the temptations to which he is exposed. Let youth wait its time; let it not seize the opportunity before the hour is ripe; let it understand that the position of subjection, of apprenticeship, of culture (special or general), is a far happier and far wiser one for the present, and that it is the one hope of a really prosperous and honourable career.
II. THAT MORAL EVIL MAY BE HIT VERY HARD, AND YET NOT BE SLAIN. Nothing will account for the speedy apostasy of Judah but the supposition that there was a vigorous idolatrous party at court, or that beneath the outward conformity of the previous reign there was a secret and yet strong inclination toward the practices of the time of Ahaz, Hezekiah did well to put down the altars and the “high places” with the unsparing energy he showed. But it was proved once more that it is one thing to remove the temptation and another thing to change the character. No reformer must be satisfied until he has reason to be convinced that sin is rooted out of the heart as well as taken out of the hand, that righteousness is loved within as well as manifested without.
III. THAT SIN LEADS RAPIDLY DOWN FROM BAD TO WORSE. It is painful, indeed, to think of the lad carefully cultured in Hebrew ways of piety and morality going down into such sad depths of sin and shame as are indicated in the text (verses 3, 4, 5, 7). Not all at once, but by somewhat rapid stages, he went on and down from the piety and purity of his boyhood to the “depths of Satan,” as they may be called. That is too often the lamentable course of sin. It takes but a few years for the soul that was taught to hate iniquity and to shrink from its touch to become familiar with its phases and to become an adept in its practices. The “monster of the hideous mien,” when we have become
“ familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
Shun the first step that leads down the evil slope.
IV. THAT SIN BECLOUDS THE INTELLECT WHILE IT DEGRADES THE SOUL. Manasseh “used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit,” etc. (verse 6). When men leave the rational service of the one Lord of all, and betake themselves either to superstition or to unbelief, they are very apt to yield themselves up to the greatest follies; to accept theories and to practise arts which a very moderate share of intelligence condemns as childish and vain. Only in the way of Divine truth shall we tread the path of human wisdom; once out of that track we lose our way, and wander in labyrinths of folly and of error. With Jesus Christ for our Teacher, we shall shun those byways of folly which would dishonour and degrade us.
V. THAT ONE SINFUL SOUL MAY WORE A WORLD OF HARM. “So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen,” etc. (verse 9). Perhaps those who first used their influence to withdraw him from the service of Jehovah shrank from some of the “developments” of their own work; but when we send a human spirit on a downward course, we little know whither that course will lead, or in what it will end. There are scarcely any limits to the evils which one bad life may work or start. Heavy indeed is the responsibility, great is the guilt, of those who lead the young astray, and send them along a path where they not only err and fail themselves, but scatter broadcast the seeds of sin and sorrow.C.
2Ch 33:10-17
The penitent.
In these words we have
I. THE LAST AND WORST SYMPTOM OF DEPARTURE FROM GODOBDURACY. “The Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken” (verse 10). Sin reaches its extremity when it deliberately and determinately closes its ear against the recognized voice of God. A defiant refusal to listen when God is speaking to us is surely the ne plus ultra of iniquity; guilt can go no further (see Pro 2:1-22 :24 33).
II. THE DESCENT OF THE DIVINE PENALTY. When other means of instruction and of influence have been tried and failed, God visits in severe discipline. To Manasseh this came in defeat, humiliation (he was bound in fetters), and captivity; he had to leave the city of David and the land of his fathers, and become a show in the distant land of the enemy. To us the Divine discipline comes in various ways, of which the most common are bodily affliction, the vision of death, substantial loss, the estrangement of those who had been near and dear to us, some form of bitter humiliation, bereavement and consequent loneliness.
III. THE RISE OF TRUE PENITENCE IN THE HUMAN HEART. At length Manasseh had his eyes opened, and he saw his folly and his sin; at length he learnt that he had not only forsaken the good way of his father Hezekiah, but had grievously and guiltily departed from the living God. We can never tell what will humble the heart of a man; one is affected and subdued by one affliction, another by another. But at length the blow falls, and the edge of the sword enters in, and the heart bleeds, and it is wounded not unto death, but unto life.
1. Then comes recognition of the truth. Then God is recognizedhis nearness, his claims, his displeasure, his fatherly purpose. Then guilt also is discernedits greatness, its heinousness.
2. Then comes acknowledgment and appeal. The heart humbles itself before God, even as Manasseh now “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (verse 12); and the soul prays for mercy, asks that its guilt may be forgiven, and itself restored.
3. And then comes self-surrender; for if there be not a willingness, a readiness to yield ourselves unto God, an exhibition of penitence is only an affectation; it is unreal and untrue. If it is genuine, it must be accompanied by a pure desire and a firm resolve to return unto him whom we have guiltily forsaken.
IV. THE BESTOWAL OF DIVINE MERCY. Manasseh soon found how immeasurable had been his mistake in his great apostasy. For the God of his fathers proved to be a God full of compassion and of great mercy, and he heard the humbled suppliant and restored him, and brought him back to his kingdom. So God now hears and pardons and restores; he forgives us our sin, and he takes us back to his Divine favour, and he restores to us our peace, our hope, our joy, our life in him and with him. For there is one invariable and inseparable sequence, viz.
V. NEWNESS OF LIFE ON THE PART OF THE FORGIVEN. Manasseh goes back to Jerusalem, takes away the strange gods and the altars he had built, and casts them out of the city; and he repairs the altar of the Lord, and re-establishes the worship of Jehovah (verses 15, 16). We return unto God, and at the same time to all purity, to all temperance, to all uprightness, to all reverence both in spirit and in action, to all piety of thought and of behaviour. This is precious indeed, beyond all price, this restoration to God and to our true self; yet is there
VI. ONE SERIOUS DRAWBACK. Manasseh could not altogether undo what he had done. “Nevertheless the people did sacrifice,” etc. (verse 17). He could not, by one enactment or by a number of them, bring back the situation he had so completely broken up. It takes a long time to restore a people to the habits they have forsaken. Nor could Manasseh recall to life the brave and faithful men whom he had “done to death” with his cruelties (2Ki 21:16). There are some things which the most genuine repentance will not effect. It will not recall the wasted years; nor undo the malign and death-bearing influences which have been at work in human hearts and lives; nor compensate the wronged for the injuries they have suffered in body or in spirit. Therefore let all remember that, while repentance and restoration are blessed, a life of holy service from the beginning is far more blessed still.C.
2Ch 33:21-25
The forfeited heritage.
It is but very little we know or think of Amon: his name is unfamiliar, for his life was uneventful. And yet why should not he have had as happy, as glorious, as useful a career as David, or as Hezekiah, or as Josiah? He had a very fair opportunity before him, but he lost it by his own folly. Let us look at
I. THE GOLDEN CHANCE THAT WAS BEFORE HIM. He was heir to the throne of Judah. Measured by some monarchies, ancient and modern, that was small enough. But it was no despicable fortune. As our own country’s history shows, we must not reckon the worth of a kingdom by its geographical dimensions. Under David and Solomon the kingdom of Israel was a real power, if not a “great power” in that age. And then it was open to Amon to conciliate the tribes of Israel as his noble grandfather had done, and perhaps to win them back. At any rate, the kingdom of Judah was itself no mean heritage; its men and women were far above the average of humanity in intelligence, in civilization, in an appreciation of freedom, in courage, in all the elements of human power. To govern Judah might well satisfy the ambition of a strong and aspiring mind. And there was one thing about Judah that could not be claimed either for Assyria or Egypt. It was the chosen dwelling-place of God; if he were hut worshipped and honoured there, his presence and his power would be a more sure guarantee of national independence and prosperity than countless hosts of armed men or of chariots of war. Judah was the home of God, and therefore of truth and of heavenly wisdom. To reign there was a choice heritage for a true man.
II. THE RECKLESSNESS WITH WHICH HE THREW IT AWAY.
1. He deliberately chose the evil course. At two and twenty he had not his father’s excuse for being led astray. The stern discipline through which Manasseh,,, had passed, and the mercy he had found in a forgiving God, surely should have affected and controlled his son. But he disregarded and defied the lessons which were written in such large characters before his face, and chose the evil way (verse 22).
2. He declined to be corrected and restored; he persisted in the path of wrong (verse 23).
3. He excited the hatred of those whom he governed, and brought about an early and ignominious death, enjoying but two brief years of kingly rule (verse 24).
Thus, after a dishonourable and reactionary reign, he came to a miserable and inglorious end, and thus he forfeited his heritage.
1. There is a very goodly heritage before us as the children of men. It will probably include something fair and bright of this world’s estate, some pure enjoyment of which we may partake gladly and gratefully. It will certainly include the knowledge of God; the opportunity of worshipping and of serving him everywhere and in every relation we sustain; the means of cultivating a holy and a noble character; openings for usefulness in many ways, and particularly in the way of helping others on in the path of life; the opportunity of preparing for a far broader sphere and a far fuller life in the kingdom of heaven.
2. We may find ourselves tempted to forfeit this good estate. It is alienable by a sinful preference of the lower good, by a guilty disregard of Divine voices, by a perilous postponement of sacred obligation to some future time.
3. It is our true wisdom and our bounden duty to take at once that decisive step (of self-surrender to our Lord) which places us within the kingdom of God, and secures for us the lasting friendship of a Divine Redeemer.C.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW
2Ch 33:1-20
The reign of Manasseh.
I. ITS EARLY COMMENCEMENT. Manasseh, “One who forgets” (Gesenius)an exceedingly appropriate name for one who in his lifetime forgat God and every good thing; in the inscriptions Minasi; perhaps so called “in allusion to the zeal with which the northern tribe had joined in Hezekiah’s reforms” (2Ch 30:11), or to the desire which prevailed in Hezekiah’s reign for a union of the two kingdoms” (Stanley)was twelve years old when he ascended his father’s throne (verse 1). A wise child may be better than a foolish king (Ecc 4:13); but, as a rule, “foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child” (Pro 22:15), while wisdom is the ripe fruit of age and experience (Job 32:7). The experiment of boy-kingsunless where these have been placed under regents or guided by wise counsellors, as were Joash (2Ch 24:2) and Uzziah (2Ch 26:5)has seldom been successful (Ecc 10:16); though Manasseh’s grandson, Josiah, must be pronounced an honourable and brilliant exception (2Ch 34:2).
II. ITS EVIL CHARACTER. Manasseh “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord” (verse 2).
1. In imitation of the heathen. Whether he endeavoured to become acquainted with all the heathen religions he could find, and to introduce them into Judah, and “for this purpose sent into the most distant lands where there was any famous cultus, and grudged no pains for his one object” (Ewald, ‘History of Israel,’ 4:208)which seems a pure conjecture on the part of the learned author who propounds itit is undoubted that he resuscitated paganism and carried it to a higher degree of prevalence than it had ever before attained in Judah.
(1) He restored all the Canaanitish abominations, i.e. the ancient worship on hill-tops, which had flourished under Ahaz, but which his father Hezekiah had destroyed (verses 2, 3).
(2) He revived the Baal and Moloch worship of Phoenicia, which Ahab had introduced into Israel, rearing up altars for the Baalim, making Asheroth, or male and female statues, with their accompanying abominable houses (verse 3), and setting up a Moloch idol in the vale of Hinnom, to which he sacrificed one, if not more, of his own sons (verse 6), and encouraged his people to offer theirs (Jer 7:31, Jer 7:32; Jer 19:2-6; Jer 32:35).
(3) He extended the Assyrio-Chaldean star-worship, which his grandfather Ahaz had introduced (2Ki 23:12); he “worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them” (verse 3). (On the nature of this worship, consult Exposition.)
(4) “He plunged into all the mysteries of sorcery, auguries, and necromancy” (Stanley); “he practised augury, and used enchantments, and practised sorcery, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits” (verse 6). “Magic occupied an important place in the regards of the upper classes in Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt. At Babylonia the interpretation of omens was reduced to a science”.
2. In dishonour of his father. “He built again the high places his father Hezekiah had thrown down’ (verse 3). Two things may have accounted for this sudden outbreak of paganism after Hezekiah’s death.
(1) The superficial character of Hezekiah’s reformation, which, though extensive enough, reaching to the furthest limits of Judah (2Ch 31:1), does not appear to have been sufficiently intensive (see Isa 28:1-29 – 32.). The heathen party which had the upper hand during Ahaz’s reign, though suppressed by Hezekiah with Isaiah’s help, was not destroyed. The spirit of idolatry, compelled to be quiet and in a measure hold itself in abeyance, was neither eradicated from the community nor greatly weakened in its energymerely it was waiting a convenient opportunity to start up with renewed life and vigour. To this party belonged Shebna, the treasurer whose deposition Isaiah demanded (Isa 22:15-25).
(2) The youth of Manasseh on acceding to the throne. Whether Hezekiah’s only son (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 10.2. 1) or not (Ewald, ‘History of Israel,’ 4.206, note), Manasseh was only twelve years of age on assuming the regal dignity, and must have been born three years after the illness referred to in the preceding chapter (2Ch 32:24). His father’s death, therefore, having thrown him into the hands of the heathen party at a tender and susceptible age, he was quickly perverted from the right way of the Lord. Even the example, teaching, and prayers of his mother, Hephzibah (2Ki 21:1), traditionally reported to have been Isaiah’s daughter, were powerless to resist the corrupting influences of the statesmen and courtiers who surrounded him. “The young years of Manasseh gave advantage to his miscarriage; even while he might have been under the ferule, he swayed the sceptre. Whither may not a child be drawn, especially to a gairish and puppet-like superstition? As infancy is capable of all impressions, so most of the worst” (Bishop Hall).
3. In defiance of Jehovah. Not content with re-establishing idolatry in general, he proceeded to put a special affront upon Jehovah.
(1) He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts (outer and inner) of the house of the Lord (verse 5), thus desecrating the city of which Jehovah had said, “In Jerusalem shall my Name be for ever” (verse 4).
(2) In the house of God, perhaps in the holy place, he set the graven image of the idol he had made (verse 7), i.e. of the Phoenician Astarte, so dishonouring the city and the temple of which God had said, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name for ever” (verse 7), and braving the Divine threatening Jehovah had pronounced against apostasy from his Law and worship (verse 8). That he “went so far as to remove the altar from the forecourt of the temple, and the ark from the holy of holies” (Ewald), though not certain, is at least probable (cf. verse 16; 35:3; Jer 3:16).
(3) He along with his people rejected the admonitions of Jehovah’s prophets (verse 10; cf. 2Ki 21:10). Whether one of these was Hozai, who survived Manasseh’s reign and recorded its chief events (verse 19), whether Isaiah lived into the times of Hezekiah’s son, and whether Habakkuk was one of those who remonstrated with Manasseh, cannot be determined. Their message, however, has been recorded (2Ki 21:12-15)a prediction of impending destruction for Jerusalem because of her sovereign’s and her people’s sins. Yet neither Manasseh nor his people would hearken. “They loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.” They refused to be warned of the perilous career upon which they had entered. “They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of his counsel; they despised all his reproof” (Pro 1:29, Pro 1:30).
(4) He employed against the prophets and professors of the true religion the unhallowed instrument of persecution. “He shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another” (2Ki 21:16). “He barbarously slew all the righteous men that were among the Hebrews; nor would he spare the prophets, for he every day slew some of them, till Jerusalem was overflown with blood” (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 10.3. 1). Not the first instance in Scripture of a state persecution on account of religion (1Ki 18:13); unhappily not the last (2Ch 34:5).
III. ITS LONG CONTINUANCE. The worst king had the longest reignfifty-five years. Perhaps:
1. To discover the true character of the nation‘s sin, to reveal the essentially evil nature of idolatry, the inherent wickedness of such apostasy from Jehovah as Manasseh and his subjects had been guilty of. For this reason God bore long with the antediluvian world, and still at times permits wicked men to cumber the ground through long years, while good men, on the other hand, appear to be cut off before their time.
2. To signalize the Divine forbearance, to make known to Manasseh and his subjects the Divine long-suffering, the desire on Jehovah’s part that he and they should repent; as God still, for a like reason, exercises patience with wicked men (1Ti 1:16; 2Pe 3:15), being unwilling that any should perish, but that all should turn unto him and live (Eze 18:23, Eze 18:32; Eze 33:11; 1Ti 2:4; 2Pe 3:9).
3. To vindicate the Divine justice, in ease the threatened judgments against Judah and Jerusalem should come to be fulfilled. After such an exhibition of the hideous character and bitter fruits of idolatry as had been given by Judah’s king and people, and after such a display of patient forbearance on the part of Jehovah, when the stroke of judgment fell upon the apostate land, it would be impossible to say that it was either undeserved or premature; that either Judah’s cup of iniquity was not full, or everything had not been done to secure her recovery from the evil path upon which she had entered (Isa 4:3 -7).
IV. ITS PEACEFUL CLOSE.
1. The king was converted. “Manasseh humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (verse 12). “Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God” (verse 13; see next homily on verses 11-17).
2. The people were reformed. In part at least a check was given to their idolatry. Though they continued to sacrifice on the high places, they did so “unto the Lord their God only” (verse 17).
Learn:
1. That early promotion, except in grace, is frequently a grievous misfortune.
2. That piety in parents is no guarantee of piety in children.
3. That the alternation of good and evil rulers in the Church and in the state is not without its useson the one hand of comfort, on the other hand of trial.
4. That “length of days is no true rule of God’s favour” (Hall).
5. That “we may not measure grace by means” (ibid.).
6. That “that mischief may be done in a day which many ages cannot redress” (ibid.).
7. That no degree of wickedness is beyond the reach of grace to forgive or remove.W.
2Ch 33:11-17
Manasseh’s repentance.
I. ITS IMPELLING CAUSE.
1. The grace of God. That the regeneration and conversion of a soul is a work of Divine grace is taught hardly less clearly in the Old Testament (Deu 30:6; 1Ki 8:58; Psa 110:3; Isa 26:12; Jer 13:23; Jer 24:7; Jer 31:33; Eze 11:19; Zec 12:10) than in the New (Joh 1:13; Joh 3:3; Joh 6:44, Joh 6:63, Joh 6:65; Eph 2:1-10; Eph 5:14; Php 1:6).
2. The judgments of Providence. “The Lord brought upon him and his people the captains of the host of the King of Assyria” (verse 11).
(1) The King of Assyria here referred to was either Esarhaddon, who succeeded Sennacherib, and therefore was contemporary with Manasseh during the first years of his reign; or Esarhad-den’s son and successor, Assur-bani-pal, B.C. 668the Sardanapalus of the Greeks. An inscription of the former monarch mentions Manasseh King of Judah as one of his tributaries (‘Records,’ etc; 3:107), while a similar inscription of the latter sovereign introduces as one of his tributaries the same Manasseh King of Judah.
(2) The occasion of this expedition against Manasseh is not specified. If it happened under Esarhaddon, the monuments afford no information of any rising of the Palestinian states against Assyrian supremacy during his reignRawlinson conjectures that he may have “entered into negotiations with Tirhakah of Egypt;” if under Assur-bani-pal, Manasseh may have been suspected of sympathizing with Saulmugina of Babylon, Assur-bani-pal’s rebellious brother, who about B.C. 648 (and therefore when Manasseh had been forty years upon the throne) endeavoured to assert his independence.
(3) The capture and deportation of Manasseh, whom the Assyrian king’s generals “took in chains,” or “with hooks,” and “bound with fetters,” accords exactly with the representations given by the monuments. “The practice of bringing prisoners of importance into the presence of a conquering monarch by means of a thong attached to a hook or ring passed through their upper or their under lip, or both, is illustrated by the sculptures both of Babylonia and Assyria. Sargon is seen in his palace at Khorsahad receiving prisoners whose lips are thus perforated; and one of the few Babylonian sculptures still extant shows us a vizier conducting into the presence of a monarch two captives held in durance in the same way. Cruel and barbarous as such treatment of a captured king seems to us, there is no doubt that it was an Assyrian usage. To put a hook in a man’s mouth and a bridle in his jaws (2Ki 19:28) was no mere metaphor expressive of defeat and capture, but a literal description of a practice that was common in the age and countrya practice from which their royal rank did not exempt even captured monarchs”. The ‘Annals of Assur-bani-pal’ speak of two Cimmerian chiefs whom Gyges King of Lydia, “in strong fetters of iron and bonds of iron, bound and with numerous presents caused to bring to his (Assur-bani-pal’s) presence” (‘Records,’ etc; 1:70).
(4) The destination of Manasseh’s deportationBabylon instead of Nineveh, as one might have supposedis explained by the circumstance that Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-pal both assumed to themselves the title of “King of Assyria and Babylon,” and instead of governing Babylon by means of a viceroy, themselves resided there a part of the year in a palace built by the former.
II. ITS ACCOMPANYING SIGNS.
1. Humility. “He humbled himself greatly before the Lord God of his fathers” (verse 12). This grace, beautiful in all who come before God (Job 25:5, Job 25:6; Ecc 5:2), is absolutely indispensable to a penitent (Job 40:4; Isa 6:5; Rom 7:18), and is the certain highway to spiritual promotion (Pro 15:33; Isa 66:2; Luk 18:13, Luk 18:14).
2. Prayer. “He besought the Lord his God” (verse 12); “he prayed unto him” (verse 13)no doubt with the language and feeling of
(1) confession, acknowledging his trespasses (Job 7:20; Psa 32:5; Psa 51:3; Isa 59:12; Eze 9:6; Dan 9:5),
(2) submission, owning the just judgment of God upon himself and his people, without which no repentance can be sincere (Eze 9:1-11 :13; Psa 51:4; Dan 9:7);
(3) supplication, entreating Jehovah’s favour and forgiveness, and in proof thereof restoration to his land and kingdom (compare Manasseh’s prayer in the Apocrypha).
III. ITS CONSEQUENT FRUITS.
1. Acceptance. Jehovah “was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom” (verse 13). So God still listens to the cries of sincere penitents when they call upon him for forgiveness and salvation, for emancipation from the condemnation of the Law and the enslaving yoke of sin (Job 33:27, Job 33:28; Isaiah Iv. 6, 7; Isa 57:15; Jer 3:12-14; Luk 18:14; Jas 4:8). That Manasseh should have been restored to his throne and kingdom harmonized well with the mild character of Esarhaddon, who appears from the monuments to have accorded similar treatment to a son of Meredach-Baladan, and to an Aramaean chief of the Gambalu, both of whom on submitting to his authority were forgiven and reinstated in their former positions. Like clemency was extended by Assur-bani-pal to the King of Arvad’s Vakinlu’s sons, who, on kissing the great king’s feet after their father’s death, were favourably receivedAzibahal the eldest being appointed to the kingdom of Arvad, and the others presented with clothing of linen and bracelets of gold (‘Records,’ etc; 1:69). Tammaritu King of Elam likewise experienced the great king’s favour on making humble submission and acknowledgment of his offence.
2. Illumination. “Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah he was God” (verse 13).
(1) The discovery Manasseh made was true even before he made it, at the very time when he thought it to be false. That Jehovah alone was God had been distinctly claimed by Jehovah himself (Exo 9:14; Exo 20:3), by Moses (Deu 4:35), by Hannah (1Sa 2:2), by David (2Sa 7:22), by Solomon (1Ki 8:23, 1Ki 8:60), and by Isaiah (Isa 44:5, Isa 44:6, Isa 44:21). So the fact that men may sometimes say or think there is no God (Psa 14:1) does not prove that there is none.
(2) The ignorance of this sublime truth of the unity and soleity of Jehovah lay at the basis of Manasseh’s devotion to idolatry. So the” Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds through the ignorance that is in them” (Eph 4:17, Eph 4:18).
(3) Manasseh’s apprehension of this truth was rather the result than the cause of his repentance. Manasseh turned to God when in distress out of a sense of sin, with an earnest desire after mercy, and with a sincere resolution after new obedience. It is not certain that at that stage he realized the theological fact that Jehovah alone was God. This dawned on him first, it would seem, in all its clearness when, in answer to his prayer, he became a conscious recipient of the Divine mercy. His experience in dealing with Jehovahso different from that he had been acquainted with in serving idolsconvinced him that these were nothing, and that Jehovah alone was God; and the discovery of this truth rendered his relapse into idolatry impossible. So men never clearly know God till they become participants of his mercy.
3. Reformation. “He took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord (verse 7), and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and cast them out of the city” (verse 15). Compare the earlier reformations of Joash (2Ch 23:17), and Hezekiah (2Ch 31:1), and the later of Josiah (2Ch 34:3, 2Ch 34:4). So in every case of true conversion there must be a putting away of known sin (Isa 1:16; Isa 55:7; Mat 3:8).
4. Separation. The people continued to sacrifice on the high places, though only unto the Lord their God (verse 17). On their part it was a compromise. Willing to advance half-way on the path of reformation, they would not make a clean severance between themselves and idolatry. Manasseh did not so.
5. Consecration. “He repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings” (verse 16). So far as he himself was concerned, he was done with the high places; and his regal authority, backed up by his personal example, he faithfully employed to induce his subjects to have done with them also.
LESSONS.
1. The benefits and design of affliction.
2. The value and use of prayer.
3. The graciousness of God towards penitents.
4. The marvellous illumination that comes with the new life.
5. The certainty that holiness will flow from a personal experience of mercy.
6. The intermixture of imperfection with the best services of saints.W.
2Ch 33:18-20
Lessons from the life of Manasseh.
I. A LURID LIGHT UPON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SIN. Manasseh’s career brings into prominence certain truths upon the subject of human depravity which in these days of so-called culture and refinement are prone to be pushed aside, ignored, and forgotten.
1. That sin, wickedness, a disposition to go astray from the paths of virtue, is an inborn characteristic of the human soul in its fallen condition; is a native product springing up out of the soil of man’s interior being, and does not simply come upon him from without as the result of his environment, as the combined effect of the circumstances by which he is surrounded and of the examples by which he is directed. This is what theologians are accustomed to call the doctrine of original sina doctrine which Scripture with perfect clearness announces (Psa 51:5), which experience everywhere attests (1Ki 8:46; Ecc 7:20), which modern science with its law of heredity strikingly confirms, and which lends peculiar emphasis to the teaching of Christ as to the new birth (Joh 3:7).
2. That this inborn principle of sin frequently reveals itself at unexpected times and under totally unlooked-for conditions. Concerning Manasseh one would have felt disposed to reason that if ever a child had the chance of being good, or at least of keeping down the evil that was in him, that child was the son of Hezekiah. Yet scarcely had he come to the throne at the early age of twelve than the wickedness of his nature began to break forth in almost full-blown violence. It is a warning to parents not to slacken in their diligence or abate in their efforts to promote the godly education of their children, since the season for impressing them with right views of truth and instilling into them right principles of action is at the longest extremely short, and if neglected may lead to irreparable disaster in after-life; while it is a much-needed reminder that not even pious parents can infallibly secure the conversion of their children, and that after all these have the determination of their future characters and destinies largely in their own hands.
3. That the development of evil in human hearts and lives is often rapid and always downward. At least it was so with this infatuated prince, who began by exhibiting a singular precocity in sin, and ended not until he had all but exhausted the catalogue of crime. If he proceeded no further in his downward career than sacred story represents, the reason likely was that his ingenuity could devise nothing more atrocious. Indeed, one cannot help discovering in him a prototype of Shakespeare’s Aaron, who says-
“Tut! I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly!
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed,
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.”
(‘Titus Andronicus,’ act 5. sc. 1.)
II. VALUABLE COUNSEL AS TO THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL USES OF ADVERSITY.
1. It is always intended as a means of religious and moral improvement, whether it be laid on saint or sinner. The Lord doth not afflict men willingly, but for their profit, that they might be partakers of his holiness (Lam 3:33; Heb 12:10). In the case of saints it has this for its primary end (Heb 12:11); but even in the case of sinners this end is not neglected or overlooked. Calamity may fall on them directly as punishment; yet it always aims at their arrestment, reformation, and conversion.
2. It frequently succeeds when every other means of improvement fails. In the case of Manasseh nothing appeared potent enough to arrest him on his mad careernot the memory of his good father or of his pious mother, not the infinite folly of the idolatries he was keeping up, not the shame in which his immoralities involved him before the people, not the blood of his innocent victims, not the mourning and lamentation of his bereaved subjects, not the feelings of his own parental bosom, not the reproofs of Jehovah’s prophets, not the terrors of his own conscience, Nor until God put a hook into his nose and led him off to captivity in Babylon did he pause and begin to reflect on his wickedness. And the same function is performed by affliction yet. God frequently employs it to pull up those whom he perceives rushing headlong to perdition, when other and milder methods have been used in vain.
III. A SPLENDID ILLUSTRATION OF THE FREENESS AND THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE,
1. The steps of Manasseh‘s recovery.
(1) Penitence. He was awakened to a sense of his by-past ungodly career, and filled with sincere and heartfelt contrition on its account.
(2) Prayer. He was moved to cry for mercy from that God against whom he had offended.
(3) Pardon. The Lord was entreated of him, and he was forgiven. He was restored to his kingdom.
2. The ground of Manasseh‘s recovery.
(1) Certainly not good works in the sense of meritorious actions, because penitence and prayer are both good in the sense of being commanded duties.
(2) Solely the grace or loving-kindness of God, which besides was magnified in pardoning so great a transgressor.
IV. NECESSARY INSTRUCTION AS TO THE ONLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF CONVERSION AND SALVATION.
1. Illumination. “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.” This was true all the same, whether Manasseh knew it or not, and all the while Manasseh was doing his best by the worship of idols to show that he believed the opposite. That which convinced him of his error was his experience of the Divine clemency. Whereas his service of idols had not been able to prevent his deportation to Babylon, no sooner had he transferred his allegiance to Jehovah than his captivity was ended. This sufficed to draw the veil from Manasseh’s eyes. So men never really come to know God till they have been made partakers of his mercy in Christ. That which renders nugatory and worthless much of present-day objection to God and Christ, the Bible and the gospel, is that it commonly proceeds from them that know neither the one nor the other.
2. Reformation. Manasseh’s conversion was authenticated by change of behaviour as well as change of mind. He took away the foreign gods out of the house of the Lord, and removed from both the temple and the city all the altars he had built for their worship. He repaired also the altar of the Lord, and commanded his subjects to serve the Lord God of Israel only. So in all cases of true conversion there must be the putting away of every known sin, the consecration of every individual power, and the performance of every known duty.W.
2Ch 33:21-25
Manasseh and Amen-father and son: a parallel and a contrast.
I. MANASSEH AND AMON RESEMBLED EACH OTHER. Both were:
1. Men. No higher dignity attainable on earth than that of manhood; higher than any purely temporal or social distinction is that of having been made in the Divine image.
2. Kings. Though often desecrated and abused, the position of a sovereign is one of great honour and responsibility. As vicegerents of Jehovah, the theocratic potentates of Israel and Judah stood upon the highest possible pinnacle of kingly renown.
3. Idolaters. Amen did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as did Manasseh his father (verse 22). “Like father, like son,” is the common experiencethe exceptions only proving the rule.
4. Sufferers. Manasseh taken captive by Esarhaddon or Assur-bani-pal; Amen conspired against and killed by his own servants.
II. MANASSEH AND AMON DIFFERED FROM EACH OTHER. They contrasted in:
1. Names. Manasseh was so called (probably, at least) after an Israelitish tribe (see homiletics on verses 1-20); Amen was named after an Egyptian god. The first was most likely traceable to Hezekiah’s piety; the second due to Manasseh’s impiety.
2. Reigns. Manasseh ruled Judah for fifty-five years; Amen for two. God determines to nations and individuals, to kings and subjects, the bounds of their habitations and the length of their days (Act 17:26).
3. Careers. Manasseh repented, turned to Jehovah, and lived; Amon died as he had lived, an insensate idolater and hardened transgressor.
4. Ends. Manasseh died a natural, Amon a violent death.
Learn
(1) the resemblances and
(2) the differences which exist between man and man, in the home, in the world, in the Church.W.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
o. Manasseh and Amon.Ch. 33
. Manasseh: 2Ch 33:1-20
2Ch 33:1.Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned 2fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, like the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had 3cast out before the sons of Israel. And he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had pulled down, and reared up altars for Baalim, and 4made asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, although the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for e2 Chronicles 2Ch 33:5 And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6And he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practised sorcery, and divination, and enchantment, and appointed conjurors and soothsayers: he wrought much evil in the eyes of the Lord to provoke Him. 7And he set the carving of the image 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, will I put my name 8for ever. And I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the soil which I have appointed for your fathers,1 if only they will hold on to do all that I have commanded them, in all the law and the statutes and the judgments 9given by Moses. And Manasseh led astray Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed 10before the sons of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people; but they did not attend.
11And the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, and they took Manasseh in fetters, and bound him with chains, and carried him to Babel. 12And when he was in affliction, he besought the grace of the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, 13And prayed unto Him; and He was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom: and 14Manasseh knew that the Lord He is God. And after this he built the outer wall of the city of David, to the west of Gihon, in the valley, and at the entrance of the fish gate, and encompassed Ophel, and made it very high, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. 15And he took away the strange gods and the image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, 16and cast them out of the city. And he built2 the altar of the Lord, and offered on it sacrifices of peace and thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to 17serve the Lord God of Israel. But the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
18And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of 19Israel, behold, they are written in the history of the kings of Israel. And his prayer, and his being heard, and all his sin, and his apostasy, and the places in which he built high places, and set up asherim and carved images, before 20he was humbled, behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.3 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
. Amon: 2Ch 33:21-25
21Amon was twenty and two years old when he became king, and he reigned 22two years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon sacrificed unto all the 23carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them. And he humbled not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father humbled himself; for he, Amon, multiplied trespass. 24And his servants conspired against 25him, and slew him in his own house. And the people of the land smote all the conspirators against King Amon: and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
EXEGETICAL
The idolatrous proceedings in the beginning of Manassehs reign are depicted by our author, 2Ch 33:1-10, mostly in verbal agreement with 2Ki 21:1-10. Instead of the summary report there following (2Ch 33:11-16) of the threatening words of the prophets addressed to him, he appends the narrative of Manassehs removal to Babel, his repentance and conversion, 2Ch 33:11-17, for which the book of Kings has no parallel. The closing notices of Manassehs reign (2Ch 33:18-20), and that which relates to Amon (2Ch 33:21-25), are again in close agreement with 2Ki 21:1 ff., 2Ki 21:19 ff.
1. Idolatrous Proceedings at the Beginning of Manassehs Reign: 2Ch 33:1-10; comp. Bhr on the parallel.Manasseh was twelve years old. For the occurrence of this kings name (in the form of Minasi) on the Assyrian inscriptions, see Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 2.And he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, 696641 b. c. (according to the usual chronology, which can scarcely be disputed). Against the length of the reign of Manasseh, as our report states it in harmony with 2 Kings, Scheuchzer (Phul und Nabonassar, Zrich 1850) and v. Gumpach (Die Zeitrechnung der Assyrer und Babylonier, 1852, p. 98 ff.) have raised objections, and attempted to reduce it to thirty-five years. Bertheau (Komment. p. 406) concurs with them in this; and Neteler endeavours to confine at least the independent reign of Manasseh approximately to the same narrow measure, as he makes him reign fourteen years (say 692678) in common with Hezekiah, and then forty or forty-one years (678638) alone. On the contrary, Schrader (pp. 225 ff., 238 ff.) shows that no reduction whatever of the fifty-five years is requisite, as the Assyrian monuments bear no testimony against a reign of more than half a century for this king.
2Ch 33:3. And reared up altars for Baalim. In 2 Kings stands the sing.: for Baal; as also in the following words: made an asherah. The phrase of the Chronist appears here to be rhetorically generalizing and climactic; comp., moreover, 2Ch 14:2, 2Ch 28:2, 2Ch 31:1
2Ch 33:6. And he caused his sons to pass through the fire. According to 2 Kings, this happened only to one son ( for ), precisely the same difference as above in Ahaz (2Ch 28:3; comp 2Ki 16:3); see on 2Ch 28:3. The Chronist alone states that this horrid human sacrifice took place in the valley of Ben-hinnom; in 2 Kings this note is wanting.And he practised sorcery and divination, etc., bewitched with an evil eye ( connected with ), and divined (, properly, watched serpents), and muttered (, whispered charms; comp. Deu 18:10). The third of these phrases is wanting in 2 Kings; whereas the following words: appointed conjurors and soothsayers (literally, made a conjuror and a wizard), agree again verbally with that text.
2Ch 33:7. And he set the carving of the image . . . in the house of God. In 2 Kings, the carving (, as here, carved image, as distinguished from , molten image, 2Ch 28:2; comp. 2Ch 34:3) of the asherah. The term idol, image, arising perhaps from Deu 4:16, appears here and 2Ch 33:15, as in Eze 8:3, to be a contemptuous and abhorrent designation of the asherah.Will I put my name for ever; only here for .
2Ch 33:8. Which I have appointed for your fathers, fixed, as in 2Ch 30:5. Instead of your, perhaps their is the original reading; see Crit. Note.
2Ch 33:10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, by the mouth of His prophets, whose speech in the parallel text, 2Ki 21:11-16, is also given in a summary form; whereas our author omits these words (words of the seer, 2Ch 33:18), though not without adding a reference to them (see under 2Ch 33:18), as contained in the history of the kings of Israel.
2. Manassehs Captivity and Conversion: 2Ch 33:11-17.The Lord brought upon them. According to the Assyrian monuments, this took place about 647, under King Assurbanipal, the Sardanapalus of the Greek historians.Took Manasseh in fetters, scarcely in nets or hooks ( synonymous with , 2Ki 19:28; Eze 19:4; comp. also Job 40:26), as if Manasseh were to be represented as an untamed wild beast, Psa 32:9 (Keil). Rather is to be taken simply as a synonym of the following , brass fetters, double fetters (comp. Jdg 16:21; 2Sa 3:34; and also 2Ch 36:6), as it is taken in this sense by the Sept. (), Vulg. (catenis), and several Rabbins. There is as little reason to think of a place, Hohim, where he was taken captive (Then.), as of a thorn hedge, into which (comp. 1Sa 13:6) he had rushed through fear (Starke and other ancients), or even of a tropical meaning of the phrase, according to which should be: with deceit, not in open conflict (Cellarius, Disput. de Captivitate Babylonica, and others). For the question of the credibility of a carrying away of Manasseh in chains, and that to Babel, comp. the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2Ch 33:12. And when he was in affliction (comp. 2Ch 28:22) he besought the grace of the Lord, literally, stroked or smoothed the face of the Lord; comp. Exo 32:11; 1Sa 13:11; 1Ki 13:6; Dan 9:13. The contents of this penitent prayer of the captive king were handed down to the Chronist by those old sources which he quotes 2Ch 33:18 f., namely, the history of the kings of Israel, and the history (words) of Hozai. The prayer of Manasses in the Old Testament Apocrypha is scarcely identical with this older record, which lay before our author; it appears to have been composed-originally in Greek, is wanting in many older manuscripts of the Sept., and is first communicated from the Constit. Apostolic, ii. 22 (2d or 3d century), on which account the Council of Trent excluded it from the canon of the Romish Church. Yet recently, Jul. Frst (Geschichte der bibl. Literatur, ii. 399 ff.) has defended the document as genuine (after the ancients; see J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Grca, ed. Harles, iii. 732 ff.).
2Ch 33:13. And He was entreated of him. The Apocryphal accounts in the Targ. on our passage, in the Const. Ap. p. 9, in Johannes Damascen. I . ii. 15, in Anastasius on Psalms 6, etc., contain all kinds of wonders concerning the way in which God delivered the penitent Manasseh (by sudden melting or sudden breaking of his chains, etc.). Comp. O. F. Fritzsche, in the Kurzgefassten exegetischen Handbuche zu den Apokryphen des Alten Bundes, i. p. 158, and Ew.Geschichte, iii. 1, p. 378.
2Ch 33:14. And after this he built the outer wall, perhaps that on which Hezekiah had already built (2Ch 32:5); stands, therefore, as often, for finishing a building (elevating). The absence of the article from , however, cannot constrain us at once (with Berth. and others) to translate an outer wall, as, on the other hand, the emendation proposed by Arnold (Art. Zion, in Herzogs Realencycl. xviii. 634), , is scarcely necessary.Of the city of David (literally, to the city) to the west of Gihon in the valley, that is, in that valley between the city of David (Zion) and the lower city (Akra), which in its south-eastern outlet was afterwards (in Josephus, etc.) the cheesemakers valley, or the valley Tyropon. These words first assign the direction of the wall towards the west, and the following words: at the entrance of the fish gate, denote, again, the direction towards the east; for the fish gate lay, according to Neh 3:3, near the north-east corner of the lower city and the tower Hananeel.And encompassed Ophel, with that outer wall which he carried from the fish gate and the north-east corner on to the south, and then round Ophel (see 2Ch 27:3). So, no doubt correctly, Berth. and Kamph.; for against the assumption of Arnold (in p. 9) and Keil, that a special wall is here intended, distinct from the former, to enclose Ophel, is the following statement: , and made it very high, which clearly refers to the former wall.And put captains of war; comp.2Ch 18:2, 2Ch 32:6.
2Ch 33:15. Took away the strange gods; comp. 2Ch 33:3-7. On the closing words: and cast them out of the city, 2Ch 29:16 and 2Ch 30:14 are to be compared. Moreover, according to 2Ki 23:6; 2Ki 23:12, this removal of the idols, and their altars, appears not to have been complete; for, according to these verses, much of this sort still remained for Josiah to remove (comp. also 2Ch 33:17), which constrains us to assign either an incomplete, or at least a transitory and by no means permanent character to the reform of worship by Manasseh.
2Ch 33:16. And he built the altar of the Lord, the altar of burnt-offering, of which, moreover, it is not to be assumed from this remark that Manasseh had before removed it from the temple court (as Ew.Geschichte, iii. 1. 367, holds). The building, at all events, is to be regarded as a repairing (comp. 2Ch 24:4 ff.; 1 Kings 5:32); even if were the original reading (see Crit. Note), the same sense of repairing would result.
3. Manassehs End; Amon: 2Ch 33:18-25.For 2Ch 33:18-19, see above on 2Ch 33:10; 2Ch 33:13; and with regard to the history (words) of Hozai, Introd. 5, ii. p. 20 (also Crit. Note on this passage).
2Ch 33:20. And they buried him in his own house; more exactly, 2Ki 21:18 : in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza. This garden of Uzza the Englishman Lewin believes he has found in the so-called Sakra, on the east side of the Haram. He affirms that there also the Maccabean King Alexander was buried, on which account the burying – place in question occurs in Josephus, de B. Jud., under the name of the grave of King Alexander (comp. Athenum, 1871, March, pp. 278, 309).
2Ch 33:21 ff.; comp. 2Ki 21:19-26, and Bhr on this passage. The concise report of our passage says nothing of Amons mother (as also, 2Ch 33:1, the mention of Manassehs mother is wanting), and at the close contains nothing of the burial of the king nor of the sources employed, but, on the contrary, appears enlarged by a parallel drawn between him and Manasseh, according to which he did not humble himself as his father had done (2Ch 33:23).
evangelical and ethical reflections, homiletical and apologetic remarks, on 2 Chronicles 33
1. The evangelical import of the captivity and conversion of Manasseh consists mainly in this, that it is a pregnant type of the conversion of the ungodly by means of divine chastisement,a significant confirmation and impressive exhibition of that truth, preached by all the prophets and men of God of the Old Testament, that God the Lord is found only of those who seek Him, that His call to repentance comes to no sinner too late (the nusquam conversio sera of Jerome, Comm. in Ezech. viii. 21; Ep. 16 ad Damasum, c. 1; Ep. 39 ad Paulam, 1; Ep. 42, 107, 147, etc.), that He killeth and maketh alive, bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up (1Sa 2:6; comp. Psa 30:4; Psa 86:13; Psa 116:3), that always again His comforting return sounds anew in the ear of the penitent sinner (comp. Joe 2:12; Eze 33:11). As a deeply impressive illustration and verification of the text: Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me, Psa 50:15, from the history of the Old Testament, the event forms at the same time a very significant parallel to the New Testament parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15), as well as to those similar exemplifications of the evangelical process in the appropriation of salvation (as the woman that was a sinner, Zacchus, the robber, etc.), of which that evangelist, who stands in the same relation, as supplementer to the other evangelists, as the Chronist to the older historians of the Old Testament, possesses an exceedingly precious treasure.
2. To this general evangelical importance of our history is to be added its special prefigurative relation to the judgment of the Babylonish captivity, which took place half a century after it. What was announced once in the reign of Hezekiah by the fearfully earnest warning of the destruction of the northern kingdom, and then also by the direct message of Isaiah addressed to the king, as the final doom of the Jewish people persisting in the way of unfaithfulness to God (Isa 36:6 f.; 2Ki 20:17 f.), this appears to be here realized by the transportation of Manasseh to Babel already in literal truth and full extent. Through the grace of the Lord, moved by the entreaty of the penitent Manasseh, the worst and most terrible calamitya long exile, with its dissolving and unsettling consequences for the whole stateis at once avented; and as once to Hezekiah, for his personal life and reign during fifteen years, so now to his son is granted a prolongation of nearly fifty years for the existence of the whole kingdom. Manassehs lot thus stands intermediate between that which Hezekiah and that which the last kingsJehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiahexperience, as the reform of the religious life attempted by him after his return from Babel, but unsatisfactory and by no means permanent, falls in the middle between the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah, with whose thorough energy and decision it certainly cannot be remotely compared.
3. From the absence of a parallel to our report in 2 Kings 21, the hypercriticism of our century has sought to refer to the region of unhistorical legend either the whole history of Manasseh (de Wette, Gramberg, Graf, Nldecke; comp. Introd. 6, p. 22, and 7, p. 29), or at least that of his conversion and the reform of worship consequent upon it; comp. what is asserted in the latter respect by Movers (Chron. p. 328 ff.), Ewald (Gesch. iii. 1. 366 ff.), Berth. (Chron. p. 408), and Hitzig (Gesch. p. 230 f.). The mythifying of the whole history, and therefore of the account of the capture and deportation of Manasseh to Babel, appears in the present state of historical investigation to be a glaring anachronism. This has been also perceived by Hitzig, who, after he had declared (Begriff der Kritik, etc. p. 180 f.) the captivity of Manasseh to be an invention derived from the prophecy of Isa 39:6, has recently (Gesch. as quoted) acknowledged the historical validity of this fact; whereas Graf has in his last work (Die geschichtlichen Bcher des Alten Test. 1866, p. 174) adhered to his former (Studien und Krit. 1859, iii.) absolutely sceptical treatment of the whole narrative. In the face of the most recent Assyriologic investigations of Rawlinson, Oppert, Schrader, etc., a further persistence in such a position could only be regarded as an inveterate unscientific obstinacy. The assumption, indeed, which was at first thought to be confirmed by the Assyrian monuments, namely, that it was Esarhaddon who, on the occasion of his campaign against Phnicia, about 677, took Manasseh captive and carried him to Babel (an assumption with which the report of Abydenus in Eusebius, Chron. i. p. 54, concerning a conquest of Lower Syria by Axerdis, that is, Esarhaddon, may very well combine), would scarcely be reconcilable with the most recent state of these investigations. The capture and Babylonish exile of Manasseh cannot be transferred to so early a time as the third or fourth year of Esarhaddon, who, according to Ptolemy and the inscriptions, reigned 681668. For even if an inscription of this Assyrian king, in a list enumerating twenty – two names of tributary Syrian (Chattite, Hittite) kings, distinctly mentions a Minasi sar Yahudi, and thus, at all events, testifies that Manasseh belonged to the vassal-princes of that great king (comp. Schrader, pp. 227, 238), yet the same evidence reverts to a considerably younger inscription, wherein Asurbanipal (Sardanapalus), Esarhaddons successor, in a list of tributary Syro-Phnician princes, along with the kings of Tyre, Edom, Moab, Gaza, Ascalon, Ekron, Gebal, Arvad, enumerates also between Tyre and Edom a sar Yahudi, king of Judah, who again, as is clear from the names of his contemporary neighbouring princes, can be no other than Manasseh. Accordingly Ms deportation, together with the attempt at revolt which no doubt occasioned it, may very well have taken place under this later sovereign; and that it did so is rendered highly probable by several circumstances, particularly this, that so long as Esarhaddon reigns we hear nothing, but under his successor Asurbanipal very much, of the disquiet and revolt of the vassals in Hither Asia against the Assyrian power. Hence the deportation of Manasseh by the Assyrian troops to Babel, and his short stay in captivity there, are to be placed under Asurbanipal about the year 648, when the Babylonish viceroy, Sammughes or Samul–sumukin, headed the western vassal-princes in an insurrection against the sovereign residing at Nineveh, and thereby occasioned a victorious expedition of the Assyrian army against them. The combination, keeping in view that point of time at the beginning of Esarhaddons reign, which has been adopted by Bertheau, Keil, and Neteler, after J. Cappellus, Ussher, des Vignoles, Prideaux, Calmet, Rambach, J. H. and J. D). Michaelis, and recently Ewald, Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthums, i. 697 ff., ii. 592, 3d ed.), Reinke (Beitrge zur Erkl-rung des A. T. viii. p. 127 f.), Hitzig (Gesch. as quoted), Thenius (on 2 Kings 21), must accordingly be corrected; see the searching and cogent proof by Schrader in the often quoted work (p. 238 ff.), with which also the not essentially different combination of J. Frst (Gesch. der bibl. Literatur, ii. pp. 340, 372 f.) is to be compared, although the king Sarak there named as captor of Manasseh, as Schrader has proved, p. 233, is a later sovereign, different from Asurbanipal, the Asur – idil – ili of the inscriptions.4 And with regard to Babylon as the place of deportation, and to the mode of removal with chains and iron fetters, Schrader has produced the most satisfactory explanations and confirmatory parallels from the Assyrian monuments; since, with regard to the latter point, he shows from an inscription of Asurbanipal that even King Necho i. (Ni–ik–ku–u) suffered a binding of the hands and feet with iron bands and chains when he was carried captive to Nineveh about this time,5 and referring to this fact justly remarks: But what might thus befall the king of Egypt might certainly as well be inflicted on a Jewish prince (p. 243). The final judgment of this distinguished Assyriologist concerning our fact runs thus: There is nothing to cast suspicion on the notice of the Chronist, and his report is sufficiently intelligible from the state of things about 647 b.C.
4. But even with respect to the history of Manassehs conversion and his subsequent reforms, the report of our author in 2Ch 33:13-17 contains nothing to justify the suspicion of the above-named critics (with whom also Schrader in the main accords, so far as he assumes the legendary as well as the historical in the report). For1. In close connection with this history is communicated, 2Ch 33:14, a notice of the buildings and fortifications of Manasseh that resembles anything but a mere invention or fable, and the separation of which from the surrounding accounts, as if it only were historical and they were fabulous embellishment, is impossible (as the highly unfortunate attempt of Graf, as quoted, p. 174, proves). 2. The report also, 2Ch 33:16, of the restoration of the altar of the Lord by Manasseh, is much too historically definite and concrete to be fairly taken for the product of a biassed imagination or a fabulous rumour. 3. The removal, noticed 2Ch 33:15, of the strange gods, of the idol, that is, the figure of the asherah (2Ki 21:7) and of the idol-altar, must by no means be thought necessarily connected with the complete annihilation of these monuments of idolatry, as if there were here a contradiction of 2Ki 23:6; 2Ki 23:12; rather the complete destroying, crushing, and reducing to powder there mentioned, which Josiah thought it necessary to inflict on these monuments, directly suggest the thought that Manasseh neglected that which was important, and proceeded with too much mildness and forbearance (towards the priests of this idolatrous worship). Even the phraseology employed is against the assumption that the Chronist reports anything contradictory of those passages of the second book of Kings; for our author knows very well how to distinguish between , remove (or even , cast out, 2Ch 33:15), and , ,, and similar words, denoting the annihilation of the images or altars, according to such passages as 2Ch 15:16, 2Ch 31:1, 2Ch 34:4 (comp. Keil, p. 365). 4. To the assumption that neither Manassehs reform of worship was truly thorough and radical, nor his conversion solid and permanent, there is not the least objection; on the contrary, 2Ch 33:17 speaks expressly against the conception that he had swept away the monuments of idolatry as thoroughly as his father Hezekiah had done, or his grandson Josiah afterwards did; and the remainder of his reign and life, after his return from Babel (647642 or 641), amounting perhaps to five years, left him quite time enough to relapse a second time partially or wholly into the idolatrous and immoral course of his earlier days. 5. If, accordingly, as is not merely possible, but probable, his return to the worship of the Lord was not a permanent change, but merely an episode in the long series of acts and events in his reign, it will be the less surprising if, in the judgment as well of the men of his day as of posterity regarding this sovereign, a division arose, so that only here and there express mention is made of the temporary repentance and better theocratic disposition wrought in him by the calamity of his exile; while he was otherwise, and perhaps usually, without any reference to this circumstance, reckoned among the sovereigns who were to be rejected from the theocratic stand-point. That accounts have been preserved to us in the canon by representatives of both of these viewsthat besides the present report, relatively favourable to Manasseh, the decidedly unfavourable account of the book of Kings, that uses the phrase sins of Manasseh several times (2Ki 24:3; 2Ki 23:26; comp. Jer 15:4) almost as a proverb, has come down to us,this can by no means be called more wonderful than, for example, the existence of two relations, a more idealizing and a more realistic (duly emphasizing the dark along with the light), concerning the transactions in the reign of a David, a Solomon, a Jehoshaphat, or than the very dimly coloured picture of the religious and moral conduct of the northern kingdom, as the indications of our author, obviously betraying a certain aversion and rooted antipathy, exhibit it, compared with the far more favourable delineations of the books of Kings. In abatement of that which the opponents have specially to allege from the last-quoted passages against the credibility of the account of Manassehs reforms, comp. also especially Keil, p. 366. If this be the case with the conversion of Manasseh, the passages 2Ki 24:3; 2Ki 23:26, Jer 15:4, where it is said that the Lord removed Judah out of His sight on account of the sins of Manasseh, lose all significance for the opposite view. Manasseh is here presented as the man who by his ungodliness rendered the doom of Judah and Jerusalem inevitable, because he so corrupted Judah by his sins that he could no longer turn truly to the Lord, but fell back ever more into the sins of Manasseh. In like manner it is said, 2Ki 17:21-22, of the ten tribes, that the Lord cast them off because they walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, and departe not from them.
Footnotes:
[1]For the Sept., Vulg., Syr., etc., read which is preferred by many moderns since Luther (Berth., Kamph., etc.).
[2] is the Kethib in most mss. and editions; some mss. and many old editions, however, give as the Kethib and as the Keri. At all events, appears to be the original reading, for which also the Vulg. (restauravit) and Syr. testify.
[3]For the Sept. read (words of the seers, as in 2Ch 33:18); comp. Introd. 5, ii.
[4]With respect also to the date (645 or a subsequent year), as well as some other circumstances, the combination of Frst deviates from that of Schrader: among other things in this, that Frst endeavours to prove historically a league of Manasseh, after his return from Babylon, with Psammetichus of Egypt (?), and so forth.
[5]The words of the inscription. which are remarkable as parallel to 2Ch 33:11 of this chapter, run thus: The Sarludari (and) Necho they seized, then bound with iron bands and iron chains the hands and feet. There also mention is made of a subsequent kindness to the captive Egyptian king in Nineveh and his return in company with royal officers and governor to Egypt. It was thus by no means an unheard of or extraordinary thing that befell Manasseh at this time; only in the manner of the divine decree and the restoration lies the difference.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We enter in this chapter upon the history of the reign of Manasseh; and a most wicked reign it proved. He is carried into Babylon. In prison his heart is changed. He is liberated from prison. At his death he is succeeded by Ammon his son. He dies also, and Josiah his son becomes his successor.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
We had this history of Manasseh before, and with so little variety, that I think it unnecessary to dwell upon it. See 2Ki 21 . Never, surely, was there a record more painful to go over. What an awful picture doth this man hold forth of the desperately wicked state of the human heart?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hezekiah’s Successors
2Ch 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” ( 2Ch 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” ( 2Ch 33:3-5 ).
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” ( 2Ch 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.
“And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken” ( 2Ch 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.
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” ( 2Ch 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.
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” ( 2Ch 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 is, 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, No, 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.
“Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house” ( 2Ch 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 son, 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:
“But Amon trespassed more and more” ( 2Ch 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. 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 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.
Prayer
Almighty God, have we indeed come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels? Have we but come to the door of the letter and failed to enter into the sanctuary of the spirit? We would now come; we would now realise all the meaning of this great revelation. Are we so near mount Sion? Are we close to the heavenly Jerusalem? Are angels in innumerable companies round about us and we knew it not? Are we at one with the spirits of just men made perfect? Are they still alive? The old man with whom we companied and the man older still do they live? Do they serve? Do they sing? Are they only out of our sight, not out of thine? Blessed be God if such be the case! We shall certainly join them, and continue with them this holy service which is music, this continual sacrifice which is delight This we have in the gospel of thy Son as our sure confidence and brightest hope. Then we will not be sad; we will drive the tears away and call them offences against God. We will see thee with the open eyes of our heart, glittering with expectation, suffused with the light of love. We bless thee for all enlargement of space, for all increase of visual power, for all the mystery of communion with the dead who live. Surely this cometh forth from the Lord of hosts and is the crown of the gospel, the bright point in the glad day of revelation. We are here for a time how little, who knows? We spend it whilst we use it and can never recover it again, a fleeting show, a vapour that cometh for a little time and then vanisheth away, a post in great haste, a shuttle flying hither and thither. Who can tell how little the span, how uncertain the tenure? May we so use our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom, and may we reckon up so carefully as not to omit one moment from the golden store. Wash us in the sprinkled blood, the all-cleansing blood, the precious blood, the blood of Christ as of a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, for by this blood only can we have release from guilt, its torment, its memory, and its perdition. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XVIII
THE REIGNS OF MANASSEH, AMON, AND JOSIAH
2Ki 21:1-23
We take up in this chapter the reigns of Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah. We saw at the close of the last chapter the complete vindication of Isaiah as a prophet, the miraculous deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem from the hand of the Assyrians by the destruction of the army, and the apparent triumph of the principles of right and of good in the kingdom of Judah, the continued prosperity of the reign of Hezekiah, and the paramount influence of the prophet Isaiah.
One would naturally expect a period of great religious revival and national prosperity to follow such a good king as Hezekiah; that he would leave an heir worthy of his name, also that Judah would now enter upon a long career of prosperity and ascendancy among the nations of the world. But we must not deceive ourselves as to the condition of the people in Judah and Jerusalem. We read in Isaiah a description of the people: “In that day did the Lord God of Hosts, call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and, behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we may die.” There is still an utter absence of faith in Jehovah: “And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, said the Lord God of Israel.” We see by this that the masses of the people were still practically incorrigible in their religious deterioration. “Wherefore, the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men, therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people.” These passages give a little glimpse into the inner life of the people. But the magnificent work of Isaiah and the goodness of Hezekiah have had one splendid result, viz: Judah and Jerusalem have been saved from the yoke of the Assyrians. They are now free and for many years they pay no tribute to that foreign power.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he came to the throne and his was the longest reign fifty and five years of any king of Judah. Uzziah reigned fifty-two years altogether. We would expect a good boy to be raised up in such a home as that of Hezekiah, but instead, he was just the opposite of his father in almost every respect, which shows that, perhaps, even in the palace of Jerusalem there was a taint of Baal worship and there were those who adhered to it and taught it to the young prince. The description of Manasseh’s reign is terrible. The idolatrous party attains the ascendancy almost as soon as he comes to the throne, and Manasseh begins at once to undo all the work that had been done by Isaiah and Hezekiah. There is a great revival of idolatry. We are reminded of Rev 20:1-10 , the first resurrection representing a great revival of righteousness throughout the world as if there were life from the dead, and the second resurrection the loosing of Satan ushering in a revival of evil. This is on a small scale the same thing. Notice what Manasseh did: “For he built again the high places which Hezekiah destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah” an image representing the female deity, the worship of which was really licentiousness. He worshiped all the hosts of heaven, something apparently new among those kings. Probably this kind of worship was imported from Assyria or from Babylon, quite probably from Babylon. We recall that Ahaz imported something from Damarcus, a new style of altar. Now Manasseh imports the new system of worship of the hosts of heaven from Assyria or Babylon. He built altars in the house of Jehovah, equaling Ahaz in his desecration of that sacred place. He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, “And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced augury, and used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards” went after the fortunetellers, which is about as sure a sign of the deterioration of character as we find. It is a great offense against Almighty God to go to these people to find out his will, when he has given right ways of finding it out. “And he set the graven image of Asherah, that he made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son. In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever.” Thus we see the idol worship re-established in Judah with its center in the Temple, and the result is: “And Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, so that they did evil more than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.”
Next we notice the change of rulers in Assyria. Sennacherib was slain by his two sons in an insurrection that was intended to place a new monarch on the throne of Assyria. They escaped, and after five months of insurrection and revolt and disturbance Esarhaddon, another son, took his place upon the throne. We are told in one of the lists of Esarhaddon that Manasseh king of Judah paid him tribute. We are not sure just when Manasseh began to pay tribute, but in one of his western expeditions Esarhaddon must have come close to Judah and Jerusalem, and Manasseh in order to keep his throne, began to pay him regular tribute. How long he did this we are not told, but we know that Esarhaddon conquered Egypt with all the western states of Asia and made them pay tribute, and we know also that when his son succeeded him upon the throne, that was a signal for a general revolt among those nations, and it seems almost certain that Manasseh was one of those who revolted and refused to pay tribute. As a consequence Manasseh was taken captive by the king of Assyria and led away in chains to Babylon. During all this time there were some servants of God, prophets, warning him: “And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, and whosoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will cast off the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies.” That was to be the result of Manasseh’s idolatry and wicked reign. The doom is settled, the fate of Jerusalem is inevitable. The seeds of idolatry have been sown in the people’s hearts, and so grown in their hearts and lives that they are incorrigible and salvation is impossible. It is possible for a nation to go so far into sin that God must withdraw his mercy from it; it is also possible for an individual to go so far that even the Spirit of God cannot stem the tide of evil within him.
As a result of this rebellion Manasseh is taken captive by the king of Assyria, and as a result of his captivity and imprisonment Manasseh comes to himself and repents. When he was in distress “He sought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and he prayed unto him.” In the Apocrypha we have that prayer. Here is a part of it: “O Lord Almighty, that art in heaven, thou God of our fathers, of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed. . . . 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, thou art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, to Abraham, 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 are multiplied, O Lord: my transgressions are multiplied and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of iniquities. . . . I have provoked thy wrath and done that which is evil in thy sight. I did not thy will neither kept I thy commandments. . . . I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace; I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: but, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities.” That prayer may or may not be genuine, but it certainly is a penitent one. It is not an inspired prayer. Manasseh was restored to his kingdom on his pledge of fealty and payment of tribute to the Assyrian monarch, for under no other conditions would an Assyrian king release him and restore him to his kingdom.
Now he seeks to undo in the rest of his life all the evil that he had done. He builds the outer wall of the city of David, which had doubtless been thrown down or injured by the Assyrians. He compassed about Ophel, which is the southeastern division of the city of Jerusalem, put captains in all the fenced cities of Judah, “And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he built up the altar of the Lord, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.” But it was too late. Manasseh died, having to some extent redeemed the evil of his early reign, but was not buried in the sepulchers of the kings. During that terrible revival of idolatry and of evil, there was a severe persecution against all the righteous people, especially the prophets, so severe that the blood of the prophets and righteous people was spilled like water in Jerusalem. During that period, tradition says, Isaiah was sawn asunder. It is a tradition which goes far back, and is probably true. Thus during that terrible persecution in the reign of Manasseh, Isaiah met his death.
Now we take up the reign of Amon, son of Manasseh. He reigned but two years and walked in the footsteps of his father Manasseh, kept up the idolatrous worship, promulgated heathenism, learned no lessons from his father’s sins, repentance, remorse, and reformation, and at the end of two years by means of a palace insurrection not an insurrection among the people, but a palace insurrection he was put to death. Why this insurrection came, and why they sought to put Amon to death we do not know. Certainly it could not have been the work of the prophetic class, who were true to Jehovah. That class of men do not murder, and yet what class of people were there who desired the death of Amon since he favored idolatry? We have so little light that we cannot settle the question. The people at once rose up and the murderers of the king were put to death, and Josiah, only eight years old) the son of Amon was put on the throne.
So now we come to the reign of Josiah, the best of all the kings, a man against whom nothing can be said; we have a description of his character: “And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.” But in spite of the fact that there was such a king upon the throne, as nearly perfect in character as any king ever was, the sin of Judah still remained, too deep dyed and too great to be forgiven by the Lord, though God defers the evil day till Josiah has passed from the earth. Josiah began in the eighth year of his reign to make reformations in his kingdom, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from all its high places, and the image of Asherah, and the graven images and the molten images, and brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence, and even took the bones of the priests that were buried there, and burned them upon the altars, desecrating them so that they would not use them any more. He carried on a drastic reformation as early as he was able to do so, beginning at sixteen years of age, and when twenty, redoubling his vigor. The next work was to repair the Temple. When twenty-six years of age he gave orders for it to be repaired, and the man that carried on the reformation and renovation of the Temple was Hilkiah of whom we shall speak later. Behind Josiah, working with and among the people, is another great prophet, Jeremiah. No doubt he was one of the powers behind the throne, one of the great forces which inspired Josiah to carry on his work, for in this period Jeremiah was in the first part of his career. So Josiah, helped by Hilkiah and Jeremiah, repaired the Temple, built it, rededicated it, sacrificed and kept the Passover, etc.
While that was going on one of the principal events of his reign occurred. The Temple had been desecrated for nearly forty years. It had been broken down, and now while they were repairing it, clearing away the rubbish from the altars, perhaps into the holy of holies, and to the ark of the covenant, Hilkiah the high priest found a book. It was the book of the Law given by the hand of Moses. Hilkiah at once spoke to Shaphan the scribe and handed the book to him, and Shaphan took it before the king. It is certain that the book discovered there contained the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 27-28) contains the curses that would come upon the nation (Israel) if it forsook the law of God. I have no doubt that this section was read before king Josiah, and no monarch could but tremble and shudder if he heard those words of Moses. Josiah rent his clothes, and he sent for the prophetess, Huldah. Josiah remembered that the kingdom had committed all the sins Moses here mentioned. He knew that the evils threatened must inevitably come, and that meant his kingdom and his throne would go down in utter and overwhelming shame.
They went to the prophetess, Huldah, and she said, “These things are true; they shall come to pass,” but adds this: “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah; because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: as touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his word against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me, I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place.”
Thus Josiah trembling beneath the terrible curse that must inevitably come, had this assurance, which leaves some hope and courage in his heart, that it would not come in his day, but that he should see peace. Then what does Josiah do? The next thing is to gather together all the elders of all Judah and Jerusalem and have the book read before them. There were probably many idolatrous men among them, but when summoned thus by the king they came and on hearing the book of the law read with curses there pronounced, they concurred with Josiah and the nation thus represented, renewed its covenant with God. The old covenant that had been broken was now renewed and they vowed that they would keep his commandments and testimonies and statutes with all their heart and soul. This was an epoch in the life of Josiah and of the nation and in the life of Jeremiah also, for we find in Jer 11 that it had a great effect upon his preaching. He had been prophesying several years before this, and in chapter II we see that his preaching took a new turn: “Thus saith the Lord, hear ye the words of his covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
This furnished Jeremiah with a text, and he goes forth preaching with marvelous power on the basis of this great covenant renewed because of the finding of the Law. As soon as the Law was found Josiah carried on his reformation even more drastically than before. The work had never been completed. Now Josiah carries it to completion. Notice what he does: brings forth out of the Temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for the worship of Baal and for the Asherah and all the hosts of heaven; put down all the idolatrous priests; brought out the image of Asherah from the Temple; broke down the houses of the Sodomites where they carried on their abominations under the name of religion; degraded the priests that bad been officiating at the high places; defiled Topheth, the place where they had been causing their sons to pass through the fire to the god, Molech; took away the horses that the king of Judah had made and had given to the sun, images of horses representing a part of the idolatrous worship of some of their deities; removed all the altars and destroyed the high places and desecrated them by burning the bones of the priests thereon. It was as drastic and as complete as could be made.
But it is only outward. Josiah didn’t turn the people’s hearts, and Jeremiah who had been prophesying all this time at last comes to the conclusion the first man in the history of revelation that “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” And the only way that Israel could be saved was to be saved through a new covenant which would write the laws of God upon their hearts and put them in their minds.
In connection with his great reformation Josiah went to the Northern Kingdom and defiled the altar of Bethel in fulfilment of the prophecy of the old man of God who had come up from Judah and warned Jeroboam against his departure from the worship of Jehovah in going after the calves of Dan and Bethel. But he spared the old prophet’s monument. Now he kept the Passover as it had not been kept for many years; he gathered together all the people of Israel far and near, even from the north. Notice in 2Ch 35:7 that he “gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the passover.” To the poor people who could not afford it, Josiah gave offerings for the passover, “and the princes gave freewill offerings.” The Passover was kept, as it had not been kept since the days of Samuel.
Now we would expect this to result in a revival, a long period of blessing and of the true worship of God, but it was only outward; it was not deep in heart; it was not lasting; Josiah did his noblest, and his name is one of the most blessed in all the annals of kings. He tried to prevent the awful doom of Judah, but “the times were out of joint,” and the sin of Judah was so deep and terrible that nothing could check it. The tears of Jeremiah, the most pathetic of all the figures in prophetic history, after forty years of effort, failed to do it.
We now come to the death of Josiah. It is quite probable that Josiah had to pay tribute to the kingdom of Assyria during all his reign. Manasseh did, and it is quite probable that Josiah felt himself under obligation to the king of Assyria, and this fact may account for the strange action which led to his death. During this time Egypt had risen to power; a very able king was on the throne, Pharaoh-necoh, and the old time rivalry between Egypt and Assyria had revived. Egypt wanted all the world and Assyria wanted all the land next to hers, and those two great nations, one in the Nile Valley and the other in the Mesopotamian Valley, were always trying to conquer each other. Now Pharaoh-necho was coming up the coast of Palestine to meet the Assyrians. It seems that Josiah felt himself duty bound to help Assyria and check Pharaoh’s progress, for he marched out against him to fight a little kingdom, Judah, little more than the city of Jerusalem itself against the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt warned him: “Now, don’t you meddle with me. I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me: that he destroy thee not.” For some reason Josiah determined to fight him and check him on his way. They met in the valley of Esdraelon, then called the valley of Megiddo; the battle was joined; Josiah, though he disguised himself, was wounded by the archers and turned about to flee to Jerusalem and died. He was cut off after a reign of not more than thirty years, in the middle of one of the most glorious and useful reigns that Judah ever witnessed. There was great grief. All Jerusalem and Judah mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah lamented sorely, and we can understand why. Jeremiah wept because he could see plainly the hope of the kingdom was gone, and the doom now was swift and sure. “All the singing men and singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations until this day,” meaning, of course, when this was written. “And they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.” The book of Lamentations written by Jeremiah, is not referred to here; it must have been a collection of songs of that nature written and preserved. We do not possess them now, as they have been lost. It seemed that the light of Judah had gone out, and the only thing to be done was to wait patiently until the end came, and it came before very long.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a general statement of the condition of Judah at the end of Hezekiah’s reign.
2. What was the result of the work of Isaiah and Hezekiah?
3. Who succeeded Hezekiah, what was his mother’s name and what its meaning?
4. What was his character and work?
5. What change in the throne of Assyria during his reign?
6. What was Jehovah’s message to Judah through the prophets?
7. Give an account of Manasseh’s further crimes, imprisonment, and
8. What was the spiritual condition of the people at this time?
9. What of his repentance and where do we find his prayer recorded?
10. Who succeeded Manasseh and what was his character and death?
11. Who succeeded Amon, and what his character, how old was he when he began to reign and when was he converted?
12. What of his early reformation?
13. What book found m repairing the Temple and what effect of the discovery on Josiah?
14. What great prophet begins his work in this period and what other contemporaneous with him?
15. What prophetess appears here and what were her prophecies?
16. Give an account of the making of the covenant.
17. What was Josiah’s further reformation?
18. Why did he send the ashes of the images of Baal to Bethel?
19. What did he do with the powder of Asherah?
20. What was the meaning of “horses given to the sun”?
21. What prophecy fulfilled in Josiah’s acts at Bethel?
22. Who was the prophet “that came out of Samaria”?
23. Give an account of Josiah’s passover.
24. What circumstances of Josiah’s death?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ch 33:1 Manasseh [was] twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:
Ver. 1. Manasseh was twelve years old. ] See 2Ki 21:1 .
And he reigned fifty and five years. 2 Chronicles Chapter 33
Well (2Ch 33 ), Manasseh follows this pious king who new has been called to sleep. The ways of Manasseh were first, a most painful outburst of all abomination, yet of the mercy of God at the last. For this very Manasseh, after his sin – after he had made Judah and Jerusalem to sin and do worse than the heathen – is taken by the king of Assyria and carried to Babylon, and there taught with thorns. But in affliction he humbles himself before the God of his fathers and prays to Him; and God heard and brought him back again. “Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah He was God” v. 13. This is a history most peculiar. Others, alas! had begun well and ended ill. He began as ill as any had ever done, and worse than any before; but he had a blessed end. He took away the strange gods and idols which he had himself set up, and the altars that he had made; and he repaired the altar and offered peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah. And “so Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house; and Amon his son reigned in his stead.” But Amon did that which was evil, according to his father’s beginning, not according to his end; “and his servants conspired against him and slow him in his own house, and made his son Josiah king in his stead.”
Josiah was a king as remarkable for conscientious service to God as any man that ever reigned in Judah. How remarkable – not, alas! that a pious king should have an impious son, but that an impious father should have a pious son. This indeed was grace.
Manasseh. This chapter is complementary to 2Ki 21:11-17, concerning his reformation, are supplementary. See App-56.
Chapter 33
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, he reigned for fifty-five years ( 2Ch 33:1 )
One of the longest. His was the longest reign of any king.
He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord ( 2Ch 33:2 ),
Now here you go. Hezekiah had restored the temple, rebuilt the thing, re-established the worship. Things were going good, God was blessing. They really became strong and prosperous again. And here his son takes over now. Twelve years old when he takes over. He does that which is evil in the sight of the Lord.
like to the heathen, that the LORD had cast out of the land before the children of Israel had come in. He built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, he raised up the altars for Baalim, he made the groves, worshipped all the host of heaven, served them. He built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. He built altars for all of the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom ( 2Ch 33:2-6 ):
So the same thing that Ahaz his grandfather had done.
also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger ( 2Ch 33:6 ).
These things that he did, as far as the enchantments, witchcraft, familiar spirits, wizards, these are the things that Isaiah speaks out against when their calamity came, and Isaiah was put to death, actually, by Manasseh. And at the time of Manasseh’s doing all these things and the judgment of Babylon was predicted, Isaiah said, “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee” ( Isa 47:13 ).
So these are the things that Manasseh did. He started following after his horoscope and astrologers and all of these people. And, of course, it might be good until you’re really in trouble and then it’s no help at all.
So he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them ( 2Ch 33:7-8 ),
But here he is, disobeying.
Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to the people: but they would not hearken ( 2Ch 33:9-10 ).
God spoke; they would not hearken. And, of course, in the thirty-sixth chapter God said, “I sent the messengers and all but they would not hearken.” They mocked Him.
Wherefore ( 2Ch 33:11 )
And, of course, Manasseh ordered Isaiah sawed in two. Just stretched him out and took a saw and cut him right in two.
Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, bound him with fetters, 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 he 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 Jehovah was God ( 2Ch 33:11-13 ).
So Manasseh had a conversion experience. It was a tough way. He was taken captive by the king of Assyria who drug him through these thorns, gave him a rough time, brought him as a captive to Babylon. And while he was there, he began to call out upon God. And, of course, God is so good. God was merciful. God heard his prayer and God brought him back again to Jerusalem. And from that time on, Manasseh was a changed man. But he was not able to undo the folly of his earlier years. He did start bringing about spiritual reforms.
He took away the strange gods, and the idols out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and [so forth]. Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, unto the LORD their God only ( 2Ch 33:15-17 ).
So there was a partial return unto God. At his death his son Amon began to reign.
Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, he reigned for only two years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, even as his father Manasseh: for he sacrificed unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them ( 2Ch 33:21-22 );
Which means that Manasseh didn’t get rid of them all.
He humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more. And his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house ( 2Ch 33:23-24 ).
And so his son Josiah began to reign.
“
2Ch 33:1-2. 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,
Yet who could have had a better father than Manasseh had? He was given to Hezekiah during those fifteen years which God graciously added to that good kings life. Manasseh was, therefore, doubtless carefully trained, and looked upon as being one who would maintain Gods worship, and the honour of his fathers name. But grace does not run in the blood; and the best of parents may have the worst of children. Thus Manasseh, though he was the son of Hezekiah, did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,
2Ch 33:2. Like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
It often happens that, when the sons of good men become bad, they are among the worst of men. They who pervert a good example generally run headlong to destruction.
2Ch 33:3. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
One form of idolatry was not enough for him; he must have all forms of it, even rearing altars to Baal, and making the stars also to be his gods.
2Ch 33:4. Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.
Manasseh was worse than an ordinary idolater, for he polluted the very place which was dedicated to the service of the only living and true God.
2Ch 33:5-6. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom:
Perhaps he gave some of them actually to be burned in honour of his false gods; or if not some of his children were made to pass through the fire and were thus dedicated to the idol deities.
2Ch 33:6. Also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
You cannot imagine, I think, a worse character than this Manasseh was. He seems to have raked the foulest kennels of superstition to find all manner of abominations. Like false-hearted Saul, he had dealings with a familiar spirit, he had entered into a covenant with Satan himself, and made a league with hell, and yet, marvel of grace! this very Manasseh was saved, and is now singing the new song before the throne of God in glory.
2Ch 33:7-9. And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
You see, dear friends, that he was not only a monster in iniquity himself, but he led a whole nation astray. Some people who, under the gracious rule of his father Hezekiah, had kept the passover in so joyous a manner, now, under this false son of so good a father, turned aside.
2Ch 33:10. And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken.
This was all that was necessary to fill up the measure of his guilt. He and his people were warned of God, but they would not hearken.
2Ch 33:11. Wherefore-
Since words were not sufficient, and God intended to save him, he came to blows: Wherefore
2Ch 33:11. 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.
They very likely chastened him with thorns, for the kings of Babylon were very cruel; and it may be that, when his back was lacerated by thorny scourges, he was put in prison with heavy fetters upon him.
2Ch 33:12-13. 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.
There surely can be no person in this assembly who can say that he has sinned worse than Manasseh did. He seems to have gone as far as any human being could go; and yet, you see, when he humbled himself before the Lord, and lifted up his heart in supplication, God forgave his sin, and restored him to his former position in Jerusalem.
2Ch 33:14. Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.
This is not of very much importance, but what else did he do?
2Ch 33:16. And he took away the strange gods,-
When grace comes into any mans heart, there is sure to be a change in his action. Manasseh took away the strange gods,
2Ch 33:16. And the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
Sins which were before so pleasing to him are now abominations in his sight, and he flings them over the city wall like unclean things. In the very valley of the son of Hinnom where he had dedicated his sons to idols he now consumes his idol gods as foul and offensive things, to be cast away with all the refuse of the city.
2Ch 33:16. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.
It was not possible for him to undo all the evil which he had wrought, as he soon found out.
2Ch 33:17. Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only.
The work of reformation is slow; you can lead men to sin as rapidly as you like, that is down-hill work; but to get them to toil with you up-hill toward the right is not so easy.
2Ch 33:18-19. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sins, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled; behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.
So we must remember that all the deeds that we have done, both good and evil, are written in Gods Book of Remembrance.
2Ch 33:1-10
Introduction
THE WICKED REIGNS OF MANASSEH AND ANTON
XIII. MANASSEH (687-642 B.C.)
All of the material in this chapter is parallel with 2 Kings 21, except 2Ch 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.
2Ch 33:1-10
A SUMMARY OF MANASSEH’S EVIL RULE OVER JUDAH
“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, after the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah 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 Jehovah. He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practiced augury, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. And he set the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God 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, will I put my name for ever: neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses. And Manasseh seduced Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil more than the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel. And Jehovah spake to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed.”
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.
E.M. Zerr:
2Ch 33:1. The statement is again made that the king reigned in Jerusalem. The importance of it is in the fact that other cities had been capitals for the people of the Jews, but Jerusalem was the original and most authoritative one.
2Ch 33:2. Manasseh was classed with the bad kings, but not as wicked as some of them. I wish the reader to note again the words evil in the sight of the Lord. The real test of whether a thing is right or wrong is if the Lord considers it so. Whom, the Lord cast out is said to give us a view of the evil that was in the life of Manasseh. He was guilty of the same kind of sins that caused God to cast out the heathen.
2Ch 33:3. High places might not have been so bad (see comments at 1Ki 3:2) had they not been used for an evil purpose, but when used in connection with other things that denoted idolatry, they were wrong. Baalim was plural for Baal and expressed in that form because there were so many altars erected for sacrifices to that god. The groves were the sacred trees, whether planted for that purpose or appropriated to idolatry out of the forestry already growing. Host of heaven means the planets and other heavenly bodies.
2Ch 33:4. This verse may be a little confusing unless the right words are emphasized. The house of the Lord was in Jerusalem, therefore no complaint could be made as to the place where the altars were built, had it been right to build them at all. But those altars represented the name of Baal, and that is the point of the criticism. The thought can be brought out by emphasizing the words altars and my name. It will then be seen that the sin committed was in building altars in that place, when the Lord had said that his name should be there. It was a question of whose name should be planted there.
2Ch 33:5. The altars discussed in the previous verse were built in the main room of the house of the Lord for the worship of Baal. Manasseh then erected altars in the courts (adjoining rooms) of the house. These were for worship to the host of heaven, which means the sun and moon and other heavenly bodies.
2Ch 33:6. Pass through the fire calls for the remarks at 2Ki 16:3. The valley mentioned was a depression in the earth south of Jerusalem. That place was so named because of the use made of it by a wicked family named Hinnom. Among the various forms of worship for idolatry was the burning of human sacrifices. Observed times means he practiced witchcraft and consulted fortune tellers. All the rest of the verse pertains to the various forms and methods resorted to in seeking knowledge that human beings are not supposed to have. Not that men can actually learn the forbidden facts, but the desire and efforts to obtain them always will be displeasing to God. On the genuineness of the claim for this unlawful knowledge or information, let the reader see comments at 1Sa 28:12.
2Ch 33:7. There were three methods of forming the images; cast or molten, hammered, and chiseled or carved. Manasseh had one of the last kind made and put in the house of God. The language of the verse is the same in meaning as 2Ch 33:4.
2Ch 33:8. The promise never to remove his people from the land was based on the conditions stated in the verse. So that they will take heed is another way of saying, if they will take heed, etc. The whole law is general and includes everything that Moses had delivered for their government. The other words are almost the same in meaning. Statutes means the formal enactments, and the ordinances holds out the idea of things that had been ordained, calling attention to the fact that there was authority behind them. By the hand of Moses is very significant in view of the efforts of the sabbatarians to discount the authority of Moses. Since these laws were given to the people from God, it does not lessen their authority and binding effect to have been given through this human agency.
2Ch 33:9. To do worse than the heathen is comparative. In view of the advantages that the people of God had enjoyed, in the way of enlightenment and evidence, they should have been far above such foolish practices as the ones they did. With that all being considered, their conduct was truly said to be worse than the heathen.
2Ch 33:10. In addition to the information stated in the preceding verse, God spoke directly to the king and his people about their conduct. Would not hearken is the same in thought as the statement of Isaiah in Ch. 1:3 of his book. It is there declared that the reason God’s people did not have any better knowledge of his way was, “my people doth not consider.” A specific instance of such stubbornness is seen in the present case.
Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, seems to have set himself to the most willful and persistent restoration of every form of abomination. All the things specifically forbidden were set up in the places sacred to the name of Jehovah; and with appalling thoroughness he undid all that his father had done. The strong hand of God was stretched out against him, and with the Assyrian as the scourge the king was carried away in irons, broken and defeated. In his distress the stubborn will seems to have been bent, and he cried to God for help. 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 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 repentance of personal sin brings ready forgiveness, the influence of the sin is terribly likely to abide.
Affliction Teaches Humility
2Ch 33:1-13
Because of his youth Manasseh was probably the more easily influenced by the reactionary party, who came back to power on Hezekiahs death; but afterward, in his early manhood, he pursued still further these evil courses, and made Judah and Jerusalem to err. Warning voices protested in vain, until there was no alternative save the hooks and fetters of the king of Assyria. But in his dungeon in the far country he came to himself and God.
The words describing his penitence are very strong, suggesting long-continued tortures of conscience, and much agony of remorse. How quickly God heard him, and how incredible was his restoration! Here was a captive for life, as it seemed; yet he is not only set free, but actually restored to his kingdom and established on his throne. There is much hope for us all in this. If we truly repent of our sins, we shall be forgiven, and not only forgiven but restored again to our kingdom. Let us believe that God not only casts away our sins, but restores our soul.
2Ch 33:12-13
I. It deserves to be noticed that the fall of Manasseh was an exception to the general law respecting the history of children of a godly parentage. It is a fact which children in Christian households should ponder seriously that if they do break loose from the restraints of their religious training, they become exceptional cases of sin against exceptional privilege.
II. This is confirmed by the fact, which the early manhood of Manasseh also illustrates, that when the children of the good become vicious, they do become worse than the average of wicked men. Manasseh fell back to the disgraceful level of his grandfather Ahaz.
III. The fall of Manasseh proves that the virus of an evil parentage when arrested in one generation may pass over and reappear in the generation following.
IV. The fall of Manasseh illustrates the power of high station and worldly prosperity to counteract the influence of a religious education.
V. The misfortunes which followed the apostasy of Manasseh illustrate the faithfulness of God to His covenant with godly parents.
VI. The salvation of the penitent prince should be both an encouragement and a warning to those sons of Christian parents who have lost the paths of virtue.
A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 124.
References: 2Ch 33:11.-E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. iv., pp. 450,452. 2Ch 33:13.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 105.
2Ch 33:20-25
Notice 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. None 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 converted father cannot secure the safety of an unconverted son, and (2) an unconverted father cannot drag down a child in his fall if that child follows the Lord.
W. Arnot, Family Treasury, 1861, p. 353.
Reference: 2Ch 34:1.-Sermons for Boys and Girls, p. 188.
7. Decline and Apostasy under Manasseh and Amon
CHAPTER 33
1. Manassehs wicked reign (2Ch 33:1-10)
2. Manassehs imprisonment and restoration (2Ch 33:11-13)
3. His reign after restoration and his death (2Ch 33:14-20)
4. The reign of Amon (2Ch 33:21-25)
Manasseh, the twelve year old son of Hezekiah, did not follow the ways of his father, but did evil in the sight of the LORD. He had no godly Jehoiada, like Joash, to stand by him and guide him. He was surrounded, no doubt, by counsellors, but they were evil counsellors. Instead of following the example of his father, he followed that of his wicked grandfather Ahaz. In reading the record of his evil doings we get the impression that he hasted in undoing all his father had done. The corrupt worship on the heights was restored by him, and he added at the same time the Phoenician rites of Baal and Asherah, the Chaldean worship of the host of heaven (the sun and the stars). The altars for this wicked worship were placed in the outer and inner courts of the house of the LORD. More than that, he set a carved image in the house of God. This was an image of an idol; the vilest, unnameable practices were introduced into the place which was to be holy. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of Hinnom. As we saw in Second Kings, his grandfather Ahaz was the first one to introduce this horrible Canaanitish custom in Judah. The sins of the Sodomites were openly practiced.
Alike the extent and the shameless immorality of the idolatry now prevalent, may be inferred from the account of the later reformation by Josiah (2Ki 23:4-8). For, whatever practices may have been introduced by previous kings, the location, probably in the outer court of the temple, of a class of priests, who, in their unnaturalness of vice, combined a species of madness with deepest moral degradation, and by their side, and in fellowship with them, that of priestesses of Astarte, must have been the work of Manasseh (A. Edersheim).
Then there were enchantments, witchcraft and wizards, and he dealt also with a familiar spirit. This was demon-power manifested as it is today in spiritualism and similar cults. So wicked was his work that he made Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel (verse 9). Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much till he filled Jerusalem from one end to another (2Ki 21:16). And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people, but they hearkened not (verse 10). Gods prophets bore faithful witness against these awful deeds. Isaiah, Jewish tradition claims, suffered martyrdom under Manassehs reign. But though the LORD sent His messages, they did not hear. In 2Ki 21:10-15, we have preserved the message which the LORD sent by His servants the prophets. But Second Kings has nothing to say of the conversion and restoration of this wicked man, one of the greatest miracles of grace on record. The king of Assyria came and bound Manasseh in fetters and carried him to Babylon. A certain class of higher critics, a number of years ago, used to sneer at this record, and denied its historicity because it is entirely missing in the book of Kings.
It was called in question for this reason, that there was not ground for believing that the Assyrians exercised supremacy in Judah–far less that there had been a hostile expedition against Manasseh; and because, since the residence of the Assyrian kings was in Nineveh, the reported transportation of Manasseh to Babylon (verse 11) must be unhistorical. To these were added, as secondary objections, that the unlikely account of a king transported in iron bonds and fetters was proved to be untrustworthy by the still more incredible notice that such a captive had been again restored to his kingdom.
But these objections have been completely refuted by an Assyrian monument. On this monument the Assyrian king is pictured leading two captives with hooks and rings. The inscription runs as follows: I transported to Assyria men and women … innumerable. Among other names given is the name Minasi sar matir Jaudi which means Manasseh, King of Judah. Then carried away, no doubt much disgrace and suffering put upon him, his conscience awakened. He humbled himself and prayed and found mercy. What a manifestation of divine mercy! Jewish tradition often refers to Manassehs conversion as the greatest encouragement to repentant sinners. Such mercy will yet be shown to the remnant of Israel, when they turn unto the LORD whose mercy endureth forever. And the evidences of the genuineness of the conversion of Manasseh are not lacking. He acted faithfully after his return and repaired the altar and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God.
The utter corruption of human nature is seen in the case of his son Amon. With the awful experience of his father before him, and no doubt exhorted by Manasseh to serve the LORD and be true to Him, he followed deliberately the bad example of his fathers idolatry. He trespassed more and more and did not repent like his father Manasseh, but died in his sins. Under his reign the wickedness reached a higher mark than under any previous king.
am 3306-3361, bc 693-643
Manasseh: 2Ch 32:33, 2Ki 21:1-18, 1Ch 3:13, Mat 1:10, Manasses
twelve: 2Ch 34:1, 2Ch 34:2, Ecc 10:16, Isa 3:4, Isa 3:12
Reciprocal: 2Ki 21:17 – the rest 2Ch 33:19 – all his sins 2Ch 33:21 – two years 2Ch 33:22 – as did Manasseh 2Ch 33:23 – humbled Mat 7:8 – General Luk 15:13 – and took
2Ch 33:1. Manasseh was twelve years old, &c. This and the following verses, to 2Ch 33:11, are taken out of 2Ki 21:1, &c., where the reader will find them explained.
2Ch 33:3. Made groves. This word should generally be rendered idols. Manasseh made images of Astart, or Ashtaroth, and of all the idols of Ahaz. His ministers were idolaters, but concealed it during Hezekiahs reign.Host of heaven. He worshipped the animals in the signs of the Zodiac, and all the planets, as Jerome states on the tradition of the Jews: but others say Jove, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Latona, &c.
2Ch 33:11. The Lord brought upon themthe host of the king of Assyria and carried him to Babylon. It would appear from the text that the king of Assyria had now conquered Babylon, and transferred thither the seat of empire. Calmet, and our Prideaux, think that this king was Asar-haddon, who striving to recover his fathers conquests in Palestine, sent his Tartan to Samaria, and to Jerusalem. Professor Strauchius, following this passage, has adopted the same opinion.
2Ch 33:12. Humbled himself. This prince was a coward in war, and very deficient, it would seem, in his repentance. His prayer used to be placed at the end of this book.
2Ch 33:18. Manasseh, and his prayer, which will be found in the Apocrypha. This prayer was much used in Jewish confessions.
REFLECTIONS.
What a loss is a good king to the nation, and to the church. The change of monarchs at this period was as the changes of day and night; one all luminous, another all darkness. Hezekiah, the good Hezekiah, is taken away from a people not worthy of so good a king. In one year all the glory of his reformation is as a neglected garden. The bitter weeds of idolatry and vice instantaneously spring up, and more than in the calamitous reign of that wicked Ahaz. The princes of Judah, who had secretly opposed every reformation, took their advantage to empoison the minority of Manasseh. The nobility, biassed by dissipation to idolatry, and averse to the temple by the payment of tithes, were ever prone to apostasy, and the enchantments of idol-worship. So, triumphing in success, they in a short time filled Jerusalem and all Judea with the idols which Hezekiah had destroyed. They had as many gods as cities, Jer 11:13; nor were they content with this, but wanton with wickedness and infidel pride, they set up once more a carved image, or the abomination which maketh desolate in the temple of the Lord. The king, emulous to distinguish himself in this way, caused his own son to pass through the fire to Moloch. Oh that the great ones of the earth would be warned by the errors of past ages! Past ages, did I say; nay but by the errors of our own times. The nobility of France patronized the learned infidels, because they employed their wit in flattering vice, and in railing at revelation. Presently these nobility, as well as those of Judah who corrupted Manasseh from his good education, felt the bitter consequences of their crimes. Oh that they were wise; that they understood this; that they would consider their latter end, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.
The indiscretions and errors of youth, when seduced by the more aged, have a first claim to divine compassion. The Lord therefore sent to warn Manasseh, and to declare that the line and plummet of vengeance which had befallen Samaria should befal Jerusalem. And what were the effects of this gracious warning? The king, hardened by his nobles, instead of repenting, ordered the prophet Isaiah, if we may follow Jerome, to be sawn asunder. Heb 11:37. How Hosea, Nahum, Joel, and Habakkuk escaped, we know not; but much innocent blood was shed in Jerusalem; for the truly faithful would not bow to idols.
When the wicked have unsheathed the sword against the church, it is Gods turn next to unsheath his sword against the wicked. The Lord sent the bloody generals of Babylon to display their banners around Jerusalem: and now there was no Hezekiah to weep, and no Isaiah to comfort. The good men who had then saved the city were either martyred or dead. Judah was then in covenant with God; now they were nearly all out of his covenant. So there was now no destroying angel to enter the Assyrian camp, no victory given of the Lord. The wicked princes were confounded, the new gods could not save, and JEHOVAH laughed at their calamity, and mocked at their fears. So Jerusalem was ruined, and poor Manasseh led in chains to Babylon, to enjoy his tears in solitude; for God, it appears from his prayer in the Apocrypha, gave him deep and bitter repentance; and in a most unexpected manner restored him to his throne in Jerusalem, as viceroy to the king of Babylon. Hence we learn, that although sinners are sometimes hardened to blaspheme the more because of judgments; others, neither so old nor so hardened, are humbled under the mighty hand of God. Oh what calamities did a few years of sin bring on the country: and oh, what ruin, sinner, may a few years of folly bring on thy soul, and for ever. Manasseh, on restoration to his throne, endeavoured to repair his fault by the destruction of idols. But he could only check the evil; the moment he died it all shot up again in the short reign of Amon his son; and it was a mercy to Israel that Amons reign was short. It made way for a prince of Hezekiahs temper and faith. Hence we conclude that the calamities of nations are often the defence of piety; and that the true church is irradiated, as the bush of Moses, and not consumed by the flame.
2Ch 33:1-20. The Reign of Manasseh (see notes on 2Ki 21:1-18).
2Ch 33:1-10 is based upon 2Ki 21:1-10, which is fairly accurately followed; but 2Ch 33:11-20 is almost wholly from the hand of the Chronicler; it deals with Manassehs captivity and consequent repentance; in answer to his prayer, Manasseh is restored and devotes the rest of his life to the loyal service of Yahweh. As far as Manassehs repentance and subsequent good works are concerned, it is difficult to believe that it can have been historical, both from the entire silence of 2 K. and because of the words in Jer 15:4 (And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh . . .). The insertion of the account may be explained on the supposition that the Chronicler wished to offer a satisfactory reason for Manassehs long reign: to him it would have appeared impossible that a king who reigned for fifty-five years could have been wholly bad. As regards the story of Manassehs captivity and restoration, it can only be said that there is nothing intrinsically impossible about itanalogous cases could be cited; and although no reference to either event is found in 2 K., it is quite possible that the Chronicler utilised some other source for the purpose of incorporating them in his compilation.
2Ch 33:19. Hozal: read with the LXX seers; cf. 2Ch 33:18.
THE REIGN OF MANASSEH
(vv.1-9)
Manasseh was only 12 years old at the time of his father’s death, therefore he was born during the extra fifteen years that God had allowed Hezekiah. Manasseh was given 55 years to reign over Judah, but he was the most wicked king Judah ever had. During his first twelve years, did his father not give him the help he needed to be preserved from evil? We are surely taught here that God knew better what was good for Hezekiah than Hezekiah thought. We should certainly learn to bow to God’s will at all times, whatever we may think about it.
Manasseh followed the idolatrous abominations of the nations Israel had dispossessed, reversing the good that his father had done for Israel. He rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah had destroyed, raised up altars to idols and made images, and worshiped all the host of heaven.
Even in the temple of God Manasseh set up altars to worship idols. With all his altars and images he may have thought he was very zealous religiously, more zealous than his father, but this was the folly of unbelief. Added to this evil, he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of Hinnom, thinking that the sacrifice of his own sons would secure him some recognition from heaven (v.6). He also practised witchcraft, soothsaying and sorcery, thus involving his kingdom in the bondage of satanic deception. Placing a carved image in the temple was a direct insult to God, who had declared the temple as the place where God would set His name (v 7). Yet God’s promise to not remove Israel from their land was conditional upon their being careful to observe all God’s commandments which involved the whole law with its statutes and ordinances (v.8). Manasseh had totally departed from such a path of obedience, seducing Judah and Jerusalem to practice more evil than the nations God had destroyed because of their idolatry.
GOD BRINGS MANASSEH TO REPENTANCE
(vv.10-17)
When Manasseh had resisted the Word of God in seeking to correct his evil, the Lord therefore brought the army of the king of Assyria to take Manasseh captive and transport him to Babylon (v.11). It was plainly the goodness of God that brought Manasseh down to this miserable condition of bondage, for Rom 2:4 tells us that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. How marvellous it is that the discipline of God accomplished the result of bringing Manasseh to repentance. No doubt God has used this means many times in seeking to bring people to repentance, yet most do not seem to respond. But though Manasseh had sinned so grievously against God, he did repent and humbled himself greatly before God, praying earnestly to the One he had before so dishonoured, and God accepted his prayer of humiliation (vv.12-13). This is a most striking example of the grace of God being available for any sinner who repents.
No details are given as to how the king of Assyria was moved to release Manasseh from prison and allow him to return to his place as king over Judah, but it was God Himself who dictated this restoration, and Manasseh then knew indeed that the Lord is God. This was certainly a complete transformation accomplished by the grace and power of God.
There were good results also, for Manasseh built profitably instead of tearing down what was of God. He built a wall on the west of Jerusalem, no doubt with the object of withstanding the attacks of enemies, and he appointed military captains in all the fortified cities of Judah, indicating his concern for the protection of these cities (v.14).
He also cook away the idols from the house of the Lord, idols that he himself had introduced as well as all the altars he had built in Jerusalem (v.15). On the positive side he repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it (v.16). These offerings indicate his thankfulness for God’s mercy to him, but no mention is made of burnt offerings, which emphasise the glory God receives by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, a far more important matter than the blessing we receive.
Yet, while Hezekiah had banished worship in the high places, Manasseh did not follow his father in this, but allowed the people to sacrifice in these, though only to the Lord (v.17). This is the same principle as is seen today in those Christians who desire recognition from the world in worshipping God, rather than being willing to take the low place of rejection with Christ. In this Manasseh failed.
THE DEATH OF MANASSEH
(vv.18-20)
Any further history of Manasseh is recorded in the book of the kings of Israel (v.18), and other books not available to us today. Having reigned 55 years, Manasseh died and was buried in his own house, thus having more respect shown to him at his death than was true of some of the kings. His son Amon then took the throne.
AMON’S BRIEF REIGN AND DEATH
(vv.21-25)
Amon was 22 years of age in being crowned king, but in great contrast to his father, he reigned only two years. Though Manasseh had thrown out of the city the idols and idolatrous altars he had made, Amon evidently brought them back, for he sacrificed to all the images that his father had made, placing himself in servitude to these abominations. He certainly must have known that his father had repented and changed his ways radically, but this had no proper effect on Amon, who did not at all humble himself, but sinned more and more (vv.22-23). His evil was so great that even his own servants had no respect for him, but conspired together and killed him in his own house. How pathetic it is that he had learned nothing either through the folly of his father or through the repentance of his father!
However, the people of the land had some sense of the wrong of servants killing their master, and they executed those who had done this. Thus in both cases God shows that He has ways of bringing judgment on the guilty. Then the people made Josiah, Amon’s son, king over Judah.
N. Manasseh 33:1-20
Manasseh was one of the few examples of an evil Judean king who became good. Nevertheless his many years of wickedness made captivity inevitable for Judah (2Ki 23:26; Jer 15:4).
"Manasseh’s acts are . . . a calculated attempt to throw off the lordship of Yahweh, to claim independence from the Covenant, to drive him from the land which he had given Israel." [Note: McConville, p. 250.]
"If Manasseh had searched the Scriptures for practices that would most anger the Lord and then intentionally committed them, he could not have achieved that result any more effectively than he did." [Note: Thompson, p. 368.]
The Babylonians captured Manasseh but released him after he turned back to Yahweh. The Assyrian king in view (2Ch 33:11) was Ashurbanipal. [Note: Cf. Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, p. 435.]
His experience would have been an encouragement to the returned exiles who first read Chronicles. If God had shown mercy to Manasseh and had reestablished him in the land, He could do the same for them (cf. 2Ch 7:14). The writer emphasized the results of the king’s repentance. He magnified the grace of God rather than the rebellion of the sinner.
". . . in terms of the experience of an individual, Manasseh furnishes the most explicit and dramatic example of the efficacy of repentance in the whole of the Chronicler’s work." [Note: Williamson, 1 and 2 . . ., p. 389. ]
On a larger scale, the reigns of Ahaz (ch. 28) and Hezekiah (chs. 29-32) illustrate the same thing: prefiguring exile (Ahaz) and restoration (Hezekiah).
"Manasseh’s sin is repeated, in essence, whenever man uses or manipulates his fellow-men for some supposedly higher good than their own welfare-or, indeed, uses any part of God’s creation for purposes other than those which God intends." [Note: Wilcock, p. 257.]
"The Chronicler is as concerned as his predecessor [the writer of Kings] was to point out the effects of sin. Both historians note the moral consequences of the actions of men. But the Chronicler regularly deals in immediate consequences: ’the soul that sins shall die’ (Eze 18:4; Eze 18:20). Though it is true that one man’s sin can cause others to suffer sixty years after he is dead and gone, this is not the kind of lesson which Chronicles as a whole aims to teach . . . What Manasseh’s sin leads to is not the fall of Jerusalem long after his death, as Samuel/Kings say, but ’distress’ for him himself [sic], as he is taken by Assyrian forces ’with hooks . . . and fetters of bronze’ to Babylon (2Ch 33:11-12)." [Note: Ibid., p. 258.]
In spite of Manasseh’s repentance, the people still sacrificed at the high places, though only to Yahweh (2Ch 33:17).
"A half century of paganism could not be overcome by a half-dozen years of reform." [Note: Payne, "Second Chronicles," p. 417]
MANASSEH: REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS
2Ch 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 Manassehs 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 chroniclers 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 fathers 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 2Ki 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 Nineveh 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 kings 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 Manassehs 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 kings 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 Manassehs captivity and release with many striking and romantic circumstances.
The life of Manasseh practically completes the chroniclers 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 {Eze 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? None 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 New Testament teaches a similar lesson when it asks, “If the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” {1Pe 4:18} But in Chronicles not even the righteous is saved. Again and again we are told at a kings 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. None 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?” {Eze 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 New: the one great symbol of the possibilities of human nature and the infinite mercy of God.
The chroniclers 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. Neither 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 Manassehs 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 Manassehs 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 Manassehs 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 fathers 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 fathers character. So the knowledge of Gods 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 Lords 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 chroniclers somewhat rigid doctrine of temporal rewards and punishments symbolizes the inevitable influence of conduct on the development of character. The doctrine of Gods 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 Gods 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. “Nemo 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 mans 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 Lords 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 Gods more militant children by their years of arduous service, and not by their impatience of enforced inactivity.
If our authors 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 Gods 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 Gods righteous judgment upon a mans 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 Gods 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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary