The Second Book of the Kings, commonly called the Fourth Book of the Kings
2 Kings 21
Chapter XXI · Vol. II, pp. 798–799
1 Manasseh's reign. 3 His great idolatry. 10 Prophecies uttered against Judah because of his wickedness. 17 Amon succeedeth him: 19 His wicked reign. 23 He being slain by his servants, and those murderers slain by the people, Josiah is made king. 25 Amon's acts and burial.
1 Manasseh wasa twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hephzi-bah.
2 And bhe did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
b 2 Ch.33.2,3. 1 Ki.16.25-33. ch.8.18; 16.2-4; 22.17; 24.3,4; 17.8-17. ver.3-7,16. De.18.9,10. Je.15.4.
3 For he built up again the high places cwhich Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a 1grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven,2 and served them.
c ch.18.4; 17.16; 8.18,27; 23.4-15,24. 1 Ki.16.32,33. Je.ii.-xvii. Is.59.1-15.
1 'A grove,' Hebrew Asherah, i.e. 'an image of Astarte.'—P.
2 'All the host of heaven,' i.e. the sun, moon, planets, and stars. The worship consisted in the offering of incense to them on elevated spots, such as the flat roofs of houses, tops of hills, &c.—P.
4 And dhe built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, eIn Jerusalem will I put my name.
d 2 Ch.33.4,5. Je.32.34. ch.16.19; 23.4,6.
e 2 Sa.7.13. 1 Ki.8.29; 9.3. Ps.78.68,69.
5 And he built faltars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
f ch.16.11; 23.4,6. 1 Ki.6.36. 2 Ch.33.15.
6 And ghe made his son pass through the fire,3 and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits4 and wizards: he wroughth much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
g 2 Ch.33.6. ch.16.3. Le.18.21; 19.16,31. De.18.10-14. Is.8.19.
4 Dealt with such as pretended to possess power over spirits, either to render them visible or audible, and so to obtain from them information concerning hidden treasure, things lost or stolen, or the knowledge of future events—a miserable example of imposture and credulity, which even the light of Christianity has not entirely banished from the world.—C.
A.M. 3306. B.C. 698.
h Ge.13.13. ch.24.3,4. Je.15.4. 2 Ti.3.13. De.32.21,22. 2 Ch.33.14. Am.4.4.
7 And he set ia graven image of the grove5 that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, Ink this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
i ch.23.6. 2 Ch.33.7.
5 'A graven image of the grove' is scarcely intelligible; but taking Asherah as a proper name, it seems to be the same as the idol Astarte, the Phœnician Venus, whose licentious worship was celebrated in groves.—C.
k 2 Ch.6.6. 1 Ki.8.13,29,44; 9.3. ch.23.27. 2 Sa.7.10. Ps.132.13; 78.68,69.
8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move lany more out of the land which I gave their fathers; monly if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
l 1 Ch.17.9. ch.18.11. 2 Ch.33.8.
m Le.26.1-14. De.28.1-15; iv.-xxvi. Is.1.19. Ps.37.3.
9 But nthey hearkened not: and Manasseh seducedo them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
n ch.17.14,15. Zec.7.11,12. 2 Ch.36.13-16. Je.44.4,5.
o Pr.29.12. Re.2.20. 1 Ki.14.15,16. Ho.5.11. Mi.6.16. Jn.15.22. Ja.4.17. Eze.16.47,51. Ps.12.8.
11 Becausep 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:
p Je.15.4. ch.23.26; 21.3,4.
12 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, qI am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.
13 And I will rstretch over Jerusalem the line7 of Samaria, and the plummet8 of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem, as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.9
r Is.34.11. ch.17.6; 10.11. Je.26.9; 25.9; ii.-xxiii. xxv. xxvi.; 32.28-35. La.2.8. Am.7.7,8. Zec.1.6. 1 Ki.21.24. Eze.v.-xvi.; 20.33-48; 21.31,32; xxii. xxiii. xxiv.
7 'Line' is put for 'lot' or 'portion,' Ps. 16.6, because the lots or portions of the tribes were ascertained by lines of demarcation or measurement.—C.
8 If the plummet indicate that the wall is overhanging, it is consequently insecure and dangerous, and must be thrown down.—C.
9 As the dish, or, according to the Septuagint, an alabaster box for precious ointment, is thus thoroughly emptied of its contents, so shall the land of idolatrous Judah be cleared of inhabitants.—C.
14 And I will forsake the sremnant1 of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
s ch.19.4,30,31; xxiv. xxv. 2 Ch.33.11. Le.26.15-39. De.28.15-63. Je.i.-xxvi. xxxii. Eze.iv.-xxiv. La.i.-v.
1 Judah and Benjamin were left as a remnant when the ten tribes were carried into captivity.—C.
15 Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, tsince the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.
16 Moreover, uManasseh shed innocent blood very much,2 till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another;3 besides xhis sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.4
u ver.2-7; ch.16.3,4; 24.3,4.
2 Idolatry and apostasy, which both met in Manasseh, have always been cruel; for Satan, the author of both, was a murderer as well as a liar from the beginning, Jn. 8. 44. The Jewish historians relate that by this wicked king Isaiah was sawn asunder.—C.
3 Heb. from mouth to mouth.
x ver.7. 1 Ki.14.15,16.
4 The reign of Manasseh was longer than that of any monarch of the house of David. In rebellion against God and absolute wickedness he exceeded all others during the first part of his reign; but during the latter part he appears to have been a humble penitent, and an accepted and devoted servant of the God he had so long dishonoured. It is a remarkable fact that only the first or wicked part of his reign is recorded in this book; his repentance is not mentioned, and were it not for the account furnished in the book of Chronicles, we should have known nothing of his conversion. This is one among many examples of the necessity of reading Kings and Chronicles in harmony. During the first part of Manasseh's reign there was a more complete and systematic departure from the worship of the true God in Jerusalem than had ever been seen. Every faith was tolerated there except the faith of Jehovah. The great altar of burnt-offering was taken away; the ark was removed from the sanctuary, and an idol substituted; the sacred books were destroyed or proscribed; the Sabbath was despised; prophets and priests of God were slain. Never, in fact, had there been such a thorough national apostasy as was seen at this period. An account of the conversion of Manasseh and its happy results is given in 2 Ch. xxxiii.—P.
17 Now ythe rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
A.M. 3316. B.C. 688.
y 1 Ki.22.45,50. ch.15.6,7,36,38; 20.20,21. 2 Ch.33.1-20.
18 And Manasseh slept with his 5fathers, and was buried in the garden6 of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
5 B.C. 643.
6 This mode of burial prevailed amongst the Jews in the time of our Lord, Jn.19.41. But Manasseh most probably was so buried, apart from the royal sepulchres, out of regard to some of his idols whose statues he had erected in his garden.—C.
19 Amonz was twenty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned atwo years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
z 2 Ch.33.21-25. 1 Ch.3.14. Mat.1.10.
a 1 Ki.15.25; 16.8; 22.51. ch.15.23.
20 And he did bthat which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.
b ver.2-7,16. 2 Ch.33.22. Nu.32.14.
21 And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:
23 And the servants of Amon dconspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.
d ch.12.20; 14.19; 15.9,25,30. 1 Ki.15.27; 16.9.
24 And the people of the land eslew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land fmade Josiah his son king in his stead.
e 1 Ki.16.16-18. ch.14.5; 15.14.
f 1 Sa.11.15. 2 Sa.5.3. 1 Ki.12.20; 16.16. ch.11.17.
25 Nowg the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
g ver.17. 1 Ki.11.41,43; 14.20,31. ch.8.23,24; 15.6,7,36,38.
Notes
Reflections.—It is extremely dangerous to arrive too early at dignity and power: so many are lying in wait to flatter such to their ruin. And novices, being lifted up with pride, fall into the condemnation of the devil. None are apt to be more abandoned profligates than those who trample on a religious education. Irreligion and a violent attachment to devilish devices and false worship are often closely connected. The bad example of great men, particularly kings, is often extremely infectious; and those who set it will, in the last judgment, have to answer for thousands or millions of souls which they have seduced or destroyed: for the greatest kings must shortly stand on a level with the meanest criminals at God's bar. When men abandon themselves to sin, the former public sins of their nation are all brought into their account as approved and reacted by them. And nothing sooner fills up the measure of a nation's sins than the persecution of God's people. Terrible are the miseries which wicked magistrates and ministers bring on those under their charge. And they who imitate them in their wickedness must share in their punishment. They who forsake God must expect to be forsaken by him. But great must be the strength of that inward corruption which renders men daring in wickedness notwithstanding the most awful warnings and judgments. Often men's forwardness in sinning hurries them into hell. And it is a great mercy for a nation when the career of a wicked king is short.