Deeper Commentary
2Ki 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah-
"Causing to forget" is a strange name for a child unless the father
[like Joseph] had a previous life he wanted to forget. Manasseh was born
three years into Hezekiah's final 15 years of life in which he turned away
from God. So I suggest that his name reflects Hezekiah's desire to 'forget
all that God stuff' and get on with 'enjoying' his last 15 years without
God. And this was naturally reflected in the way he raised a son who was one
of Israel's most evil rulers.
2Ki 21:2 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the
abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of
Israel-
We may wonder why God let such an evil man live and reign for 55 years
(:1), the longest reigning of any king. Surely if he had been slain for his
wickedness, as other men were, then he would have led fewer people astray? I
suggest the answer is that God worked for decades towards this evil man's
repentance- and it paid off. He did repent in the end. And we can look
forward to eternity together with him. We see in this the huge meaning and
value God places upon the individual person, and how He will not give up
searching for the lost until He finds them. Manasseh would be the parade
example of that.
See on :15. Jonah recognized “I am cast out of Your sight” (Jonah 2:4), the very language of condemnation used at this time (1 Kings 9:7; 2 Kings 17:20; 21:2; 23:27; Jer. 7:15).
2Ki 21:3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had
destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did
Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the host of the sky, and served
them-
This revival of idolatry would not have been possible unless the people
generally were eager and willing for it. I suggested previously that
Hezekiah's reforms were largely on the cusp of his becoming king. They
were partly a psychological reaction against the misery of Ahaz's reign,
and the reforms of 2 Chron. 31 were often a result of group psychology
rather than personal reformation of the heart. They were all too sudden
and spontaneous, at the same moment, to have been the outcome of all the
concerned individuals having the same heart response. There was a group
psychology there, a going with the crowd. And so it is unsurprising that
they all turned away relatively soon afterwards.
2Ki 21:4 He built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh said, I
will put My name in Jerusalem-
The Name is called upon us; and therefore and thereby we are
Yahweh's servants, dominated by His principles and character. Because the
Name was called upon the temple, therefore it was simply impossible that
those who realized this could worship idols in it (2 Kings 21:4,7);
whatever has God's Name called upon it, whatever bears His image, must be
devoted to Him alone. The Lord pointed out that this applies to our very
bodies, which being in God's image should be given over to Him.
2Ki 21:5 He built altars for all the host of the sky in the two courts of
the house of Yahweh-
These were the court of the priests, and the court of the common people
(2 Chron. 4:9). The priesthood were surely complicit in this. For when
Uzziah had tried to offer incense himself, 80 faithful priests resisted
him. But there is no record of any such resistance to Manasseh. The
priests in Hezekiah's time had been reticent to devote themselves solely
to Yahweh (1 Chron. 29:34). I suggested that this was because they were
accustomed to being priests both of Yahweh and of the pagan gods. This
means that they took a cut from all the offerings to all the gods.
2Ki 21:6 He made his son to pass through the fire, and practised sorcery,
used enchantments and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with
wizards-
This would have meant that his surviving children would have hated him
for slaying their siblings; although passing through the fire may have
been a dedication ceremony rather than actually burning them to death. 2
Kings 21:6 has "his son", 2 Chron. 33:6 has "his children". As he had more
than one son, we are to infer surely that this focus upon "his son" meant
that one of his sons in particular passed through the fire, and that could
imply that he sacrificed his son [maybe his firstborn]. Israel should have
removed from amongst them a man who did this (Dt. 18:10), and the fact
they didn't suggests they therefore passively supported him in his
apostacy.
The valley of Hinnom, Ge Hinnom, was to later be known as Gehenna, and
became a symbol used by the Lord for complete destruction (Mt. 5:22). As
they burnt their children there, to destruction, so sinners would be burnt
to destruction in that same place. Joachim Jeremias explains how the literal valley of
Gehenna came to be misinterpreted as a symbol of a ‘hell’ that is supposed
to be a place of fire: “[Gehenna]…since ancient times has been the
name of the valley west and south of Jerusalem… from the woes pronounced
by the prophets on the valley (Jer. 7:32 = 19:6; cf. Is. 31:9; 66:24)
because sacrifices to Moloch took place there (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6), there
developed in the second century BC the idea that the valley of Hinnom
would be the place of a fiery hell (Eth. Enoch 26; 90.26)… it is
distinguished from sheol” (New Testament Theology, London:
SCM, 1972 p. 129).
2Ki 21:7 He set the engraved image of Asherah that he had made, in the
house of which Yahweh 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-
Manasseh is criticized for placing an idol in the
very place where God's Name of Yahweh was meant to dwell.
He replaced the invisible things- the more abstract things of the
characteristics of God which the Name speaks of- by something material and
visible. We make the same mistake when we turn away from true spirituality
and become lost in physical works. If Judah had not forgotten the Name
[and this must refer to their lack of appreciation of it rather than
forgetting the letters JHVH], then they wouldn’t have served Baal and
other gods (Jer. 23:27).
2Ki 21:8 neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of
the land which I gave their fathers, if only 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-
This is apparently (:7) a quotation from what God said to David and
Solomon. But it appears to be an adaptation about the promises to the
singular seed, that he must continue in obedience if the promises were to
be fulfilled through him. But just as Abraham's seed is both the Lord
Jesus and all those in Him, the true Israel of God, so the promises about
David's seed also have a collective dimension.
2Ki 21:9 But they didn’t listen: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil
than the nations did whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel-
God's tolerance of Judah in His land was therefore by grace, and in
hope of their repentance. Their doing "more evil" than the Gentiles could
refer to the fact that as in covenant relationship with God, they were the
more responsible for their sins. Or the idea may be that most Gentiles
were faithful to their set of gods, only changing them if that was
enforced upon them by the military dominance of a neighbour. But Judah
went running madly to every god they could, described by Hosea under the
figure of sexual addiction.
2Ki 21:10 Yahweh spoke by His servants the prophets saying-
2 Chron. 33:10 Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they
gave no heed".
"They gave no heed", or 'did not listen', is a phrase used in the
later prophets as they appeal to the exiles (Neh. 9:34; Zech. 1:4). The
sins of Manasseh in 'not listening' to God's word are cited as the main
reason for the exile. We note that refusing to listen to God's word is the
essence of all the sins of idolatry etc. It is the spurning of
relationship with God which appears to hurt Him even more than the list of
sins which Manasseh was also guilty of.
2Ki 21:11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and
has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did who were before him, and
has made Judah also to sin with his idols-
Making others to sin is a major dimension of human sin, although
personal sin is still a significant issue here in the condemnation of
Manasseh. The mention of the Amorites is because they were cast out of the
land once they had sinned to a certain point, and Israel were treated in
the same way (Gen. 15:16).
2Ki 21:12 therefore thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I bring
such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears
shall tingle-
2Ki 21:13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and
the plummet of the house of Ahab-
They would be judged like Israel, because they had sinned in fact worse
than Israel, according to Ezekiel's parable of the two adulterous sisters.
And I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and
turning it upside down-
The idea is that not one drop would be left. And yet by grace many were
left in Judah, and there was even some attempt at worship at the temple
site, according to Jeremiah. "Turning it upside down" is ‘to turn it upon
its face', as if never to be used again. "Wipe" is s.w. for utter
destruction (Gen. 7:4; Ex. 32:33; Num. 5:23). We could render it as
'wiping out'. Yet this was spoken in wrath, and in wrath God remembered
mercy. For a set time to remember Zion was yet to come, and He would
restore Jerusalem. It is this kind of apparent contradiction within God
which Hosea speaks of, as His "repentings" being "kindled together" (Hos.
11:8). See on :14.
2Ki 21:14 I will cast off the remainder of My inheritance and deliver them
into the hand of their enemies. They will become a prey and a spoil to all
their enemies-
But Israel were not cast off eternally. See on :13, where we can
understand the apparent contradiction as the wrath of love, a threat and
feeling which was not carried out. Or we can argue that Israel's not being
cast off was a result of a reinterpretation and redefinition of God's
people. Paul’s positive approach to Israel’s conversion is reflected in his whole
reasoning in Romans 11, his classic statement about preaching to Israel. He
begins by saying that God has not cast off His people Israel totally,
because some, e.g. himself, have turned to Christ. So, seeing that God will
not cast off His people Israel in the ultimate sense, it perhaps follows
that in every generation some of them will come to Christ as Paul did (Rom.
11:1,2). In some sense, God has cast off His people (2 Kings 21:14 RV; Zech.
10:6); and yet, because a minority of them will always accept Christ, it is
not true that God has cast off His people in a total sense (Rom. 11:1 RV).
It was only because of this remnant that Israel have not become like Sodom
(Rom. 9:29)- even though Old Testament passages such as Ezekiel 16 clearly
liken Jerusalem to Sodom. Yet they are not as Sodom ultimately, for the sake
of the remnant who will believe.
The Lord Jesus was well aware of the connection between God's refusal
to answer prayer and His recognition of sin in the person praying (2 Sam.
22:42 = Ps. 2:2-5). It is emphasized time and again that God will not
forsake / cast off those who love Him (e.g. Dt. 4:31; 31:6; 1 Sam. 12:22; 1 Kings
6:13; Ps. 94:14; Is. 41:17; 42:16). Every one of these passages must have
been well known to our Lord, the word made flesh. He knew that God
forsaking Israel was a punishment for their sin (Jud. 6:13; 2 Kings 21:14;
Is. 2:6; Jer. 23:33). God would forsake Israel only if they forsook Him
(Dt. 31:16,17; 2 Chron. 15:2). We can therefore conclude that His
desperate “Why have You forsaken me?” was because He was so intensely
identified with our sins that in the crisis of the cross, He indeed felt
forsaken because of sin. He did not sin, but felt like a sinner; He
thereby knows how sinners feel.
2Ki 21:15 because they have done that which is evil in My sight, and have
provoked Me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt
even to this day’-
God can be grieved [s.w. 'provoke to anger']. He has emotions (see on
:13), and His
potential foreknowledge doesn't mean that these feelings are not
legitimate. They are presented as occurring in human time, as responses to
human behaviour. This is the degree to which He has accommodated Himself
to human time-space limits, in order to fully enter relationship and
experience with us. As He can limit His omnipotence, so God can limit His
omniscience, in order to feel and respond along with us.
2Ki 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he
made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh-
Josephus claims many prophets were slain at this time. Jewish
tradition has it that Isaiah was slain by being "sawn asunder", and that
apparently is alluded to in Heb. 11:37.
2Ki 21:17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and
his sin that he sinned, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles
of the kings of Judah?-
We wonder why Kings says nothing of Manasseh’s repentance, which is
recorded in detail in Chronicles and was one of the most amazing examples
of human repentance (2 Chron. 33:12-19). Perhaps it is because the record
wishes to provide a relatively uninterrupted record of the sins of God's
people. For the Babylonian destruction was not because of the sins of the
kings so much as for those of the people.
2Ki 21:18 Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of
his own house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his
place-
The description of death as sleeping with fathers is clear evidence
that death is seen as a sleep, unconsciousness, and not as the start of an
immortal soul going to heaven or 'hell'. Good and bad, David and Solomon,
are gathered together in death. The division between them will only
therefore come at the resurrection of the dead, and the granting of
immortality at the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus.
2Ki 21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the
daughter of Haruz of Jotbah-
He had been raised in the spirit of his father's apostacy, and was
apparently unimpressed by Manasseh's amazing repentance.
2Ki 21:20 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as Manasseh
his father did-
2 Chron. 33:22 adds: "He did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the
engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them". Manasseh had removed the images, but not apparently destroyed them.
The history of the kings abounds with such references to idolatry being
reformed, and then so quickly revived. The speed of its revival reflects
the fact that the heart of the people generally was with the idols. And we
must assess our own episodes of apparent repentance in this light.
Manasseh had repaired the temple (2 Chron. 33:16), but by Josiah's time it needed
repairing again; so it could be that Amon also desecrated and damaged the
temple yet further.
2Ki 21:21 He walked in all the way that his father walked in, and
served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them-
See on :20. He revived the idols his father had destroyed on his
repentance.
2Ki 21:22 and he forsook Yahweh the God of his fathers-
We get the impression Amon was never "with" Yahweh, so his forsaking
Yahweh may refer to how there is a conscience toward God in every man,
however latent, but he had forsaken this.
And didn’t walk in
the way of Yahweh-
Think through the implications of Lk. 3:4, where we read that John’s
preaching was in order to make [s.w. ‘to bring forth fruit’] His [the
Lord’s] paths straight- but the ways of the Lord are “right” [s.w.
“straight”] anyway (Acts 13:10). So how could John’s preaching make the
Lord’s ways straight / right, when they already are? God is so associated
with His people that their straightness or crookedness reflects upon Him;
for they are His witnesses in this world. His ways are their ways. This is
the N.T. equivalent of the O.T. concept of keeping / walking in the way of
the Lord (Gen. 18:19; 2 Kings 21:22). Perhaps this is the thought behind the
exhortation of Heb. 12:13 to make straight paths for our own feet. We are to
bring our ways into harmony with the Lord’s ways; for He is to be us, His
ways our ways.
2Ki 21:23 The servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to
death in his own house-
There seems a special stigma and shame attached to being murdered in
ones' own home, rather than on a battlefield or dying from old age.
2Ki 21:24 But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired
against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in
his place-
The final part of Judah's history, like that of Israel's, involves
division between brethren, conspiracy and politics. Those who indulge in
such things are really living out their own condemnation, as well as
sounding the death toll for their own communities of God's people (see on
Gal. 5:15).
2Ki 21:25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, aren’t they
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?-
This may not necessarily be the books of Chronicles which we have in
our Bibles.
2Ki 21:26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his
son reigned in his place-
Josiah means 'foundation of Yah'. It's unlikely this was the name Amon
gave him, although a repentant Manasseh may have influenced it. However,
at no point did even kings like Amon and Manasseh formally deny Yahweh.
They worshipped Him, so they thought, through worshipping idols. So it is
not impossible that indeed this was Josiah's birth name. And from that we
can take yet another warning, to serve Yahweh with our whole hearts; and
not assume that our service of the flesh is serving Him.
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