Two Kingdoms · c. 697–640 BC
Chapter 23
Manasseh
When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.
For parents
This chapter tells how King Manasseh made his son “pass through the fire” (2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6 says his children), turned to sorcery and mediums, and killed so many innocent people that he filled Jerusalem with their blood (2 Kings 21:16). Later he is taken to Babylon in chains (2 Chronicles 33:11). His son King Amon is killed in his own house by his servants, and the people of the land kill all the plotters (2 Kings 21:23–24). Nahum calls Nineveh “the bloody city” (Nahum 3:1); none of it is told in detail.
became king of Judah at the age of twelve, and he reigned in for fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. He copied the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out ahead of the Israelites.
He rebuilt the his father had torn down. He put up altars for and made an , the way king of Israel did. He bowed down to the stars, the whole army of the sky, and served them.
He built altars in the Lord’s house, the house the Lord had spoken of when he said, “I will put my name in Jerusalem.” In both courtyards of the Lord’s house, he built altars for all the stars of the sky.
He made his son pass through the fire. 2 Chronicles says he made his children pass through the fire, in the valley of the son of . He practiced sorcery and worked spells, and he turned to and . He did much evil in the Lord’s eyes and made the Lord angry.
He made a carved image of Asherah and put it in the Lord’s house. This was the house the Lord had spoken of to and to his son: “I will put my name forever in this house and in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. Never again will I make Israel wander away from the land I gave to their ancestors, as long as they are careful to obey all my commands and all the law my servant gave them.”
But the people didn’t listen. Manasseh misled Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem, until they did worse things than the nations the Lord had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.
The Lord spoke through his servants the . He said, “Manasseh king of Judah has done these detestable things. He has been more wicked than all the who came before him, and with his he has led Judah into sin as well.
“So the Lord, the God of Israel, says this: I am going to bring such harm on Jerusalem and Judah that when anyone hears about it, both their ears will tingle. I will stretch the same measuring line over Jerusalem as over , and the same as over Ahab’s family. I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
“I will abandon the rest of my own people and hand them over to their enemies. All their enemies will prey on them and plunder them, because they have done what is evil in my eyes. They have made me angry ever since their ancestors came out of , right up to today.”
Manasseh also killed innocent people, so many that he filled Jerusalem with their blood from one end to the other. That was on top of the sin he led Judah into, making them do what was evil in the Lord’s eyes.
The book of 2 Chronicles tells a story here that 2 Kings doesn’t. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they didn’t listen. So the Lord brought the king of ’s army commanders against them. They took Manasseh in chains, bound him with shackles, and carried him off to .
In his distress, Manasseh pleaded with the Lord his God, and he humbled himself deeply before the God of his ancestors. He prayed to the Lord, and the Lord listened. He heard Manasseh begging for mercy, and he brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
After this, Manasseh built an outer wall for , west of in the valley, as far as the entrance at the Fish Gate. He ran it all the way around and built it up very high. And he put brave commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.
He took the foreign gods and the idol out of the Lord’s house. He also took away every altar he had built on the hill of the Lord’s house and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city.
He built up the Lord’s altar and offered and thanksgiving offerings on it, and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.
Even so, the people kept on sacrificing at the high places, though only to the Lord their God.
The Bible also keeps the words of a prophet named , about in Assyria. His book begins, “A revelation about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.” In it he says:
The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power,and he will never let the guilty go unpunished.The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,and the clouds are the dust of his feet.The Lord is good,a stronghold in the day of trouble;and he knows those who take refuge in him.
And of Nineveh he says:
Woe to the bloody city!It is all full of lies and robbery—and there is no end to its prey.
And the Lord says to Nineveh:
All who look at you will run from you,and say, “Nineveh is destroyed! Who will mourn for her?”Where will I look for anyone to comfort you?
Everything else Manasseh did is written in the records of the kings of Judah, and so is the sin he committed. 2 Chronicles says they are written in the records of the kings of Israel. His prayer to his God is there, and so are the words of the who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 2 Chronicles adds that the history of tells of his prayer and how God listened to him. It also tells of all his sin and wrongdoing, and of the places where he built high places and put up Asherah poles and carved images. That was before he humbled himself.
Then Manasseh died and joined his ancestors. He was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and his son became king after him.
Amon became king at twenty-two and reigned in Jerusalem for two years. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz from Jotbah.
He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, as his father Manasseh had. He lived in every way as his father had lived. He served and worshiped the idols his father had served, and he offered sacrifices to all the carved images Manasseh had made. He turned his back on the Lord, his ancestors’ God, and did not follow the Lord’s way.
2 Chronicles adds that Amon did not humble himself before the Lord the way his father Manasseh had. He went on sinning more and more.
Amon’s servants plotted against him and killed the king in his own house. But the people of the land killed every one of those who had plotted against King Amon, and they made Amon’s son king in his place.
The rest of what Amon did is written in the records of the kings of Judah. He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king after him.