2 Kings 21:1-9

I. THE REPROBATION AND REPENTANCE OF MANASSEH 21:1-18

Considering the length of his reign, very little is known about Manasseh. After a brief and somewhat general introduction to his reign (2 Kings 21:1-9), the author of Kings inserts a summary of the prophetic preaching during these days (2 Kings 21:10-15). With the addition of a couple more important facts about Manasseh, the account of this king comes to an end (2 Kings 21:16-18).

A. INTRODUCTION TO THE REIGN OF MANASSEH 21:1-9

TRANSLATION

(1) Manasseh was twelve yean old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hephzibah. (2) He did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD like the abominations of the nations which the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel. (3) For again he built up the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected an altar to Baal, and made an Asherah as did Ahab king of Israel; and he worshiped all the host of the heavens, and served them. (4) And he built altars in the house of the LORD of which the LORD had said, In Jerusalem I will put My name. (5) And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. (6) And he made his son to pass through the fire, and was an observer of times; he used enchantments and placed in office necromancers and wizards. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD to provoke Hun. (7) And he set a graven image of the Asherah which he had made in the house of which the LORD had said to David and unto Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I shall put My name forever. (8) And I will not again move the feet of Israel from the ground which I gave to their fathers; only if they be careful to do according to all which I commanded them, and to all the instruction which Moses My servant commanded them. (9) But they would not hearken, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations which the LORD had destroyed from before the children of Israel.

COMMENTS

Since Manasseh was only twelve years old when he began to reign, he must have been born during that grace period which God added to the life of Hezekiah. His name means for- getting, and perhaps was bestowed upon the babe because God had caused Hezekiah to forget the grief of his near-fatal illness and the humiliating circumstances of Sennacherib's invasion. The fifty-five year reign of Manasseh was the longest of any king of Israel or Judah. The name of Manasseh's motherHephzibah[630]means My delight is in her (2 Kings 21:1). It has been conjectured by some that she probably served as regent during the minority of her son.

[630] Isaiah gave this name to restored Jerusalem. Cf. Isaiah 62:4.

Thirteenth King of Judah
MANASSEH BEN HEZEKIAH
686-642 B.C.*
(Forgetting)

2 Kings 21:1-18; 2 Chronicles 33:1-20

Contemporary Prophets
Isaiah: Nahum

Mother: Hephzibah

Appraisal: Worst

The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. Psalms 105:20

* coregent from 695 B.C.

The accession of this boy-king was no doubt joyfully hailed by those who had taken issue with Hezekiah's reform efforts and Isaiah's preaching. These wicked princes were able to sway Manasseh to their more liberal point of view. As a result this king justly has received the reputation as the worst king to ever sit on the throne of David. He followed all the abominations of the heathen, the very practices for which the Almighty had brought judgment upon the Canaanites (2 Kings 21:2). High places dedicated to the Canaanite deities reappeared. The worship of the Tyrian Baal, first introduced by Ahab in Israel and by Athaliah in Judah (cf. 2 Kings 11:18), again made its appearance. A wooden image symbolic of the goddess Asherah was erected by the king. Worship of the heavenly bodies which had been so popular in the days of Ahaz again was tolerated (2 Kings 21:3).

With brazen and blasphemous daring, Manasseh introduced into the precincts of the Templethat spot at which Yahweh had graciously condescended to residealtars to other gods (2 Kings 21:4). These altars were used in the worship of the host of heaven. Some of them were placed in the outer court where the people gathered for worship, and some, or at least one, in the inner court where the priests ministered at the great bronze altar[631] in the divinely ordained rituals of Mosaic religion (2 Kings 21:5).

[631] Ahaz had for a time removed this great altar from its place of prominence (2 Kings 16:14), but Hezekiah had most certainly restored it to its rightful place.

The catalog of Manasseh's crimes continues in 2 Kings 21:6-9. This king dedicated his first born son (or sons according to the Chronicler) to the god Moloch, and offered him up as a burnt offering. Manasseh was superstitious. He kept close check on his lucky and unlucky days. He resorted to enchantments, i.e., spells and the like. Necromancers (those who call up the dead) and wizards (those who supposedly had supernatural insight into the future) he placed in official positions in his court. Manasseh was determined to restore every outlawed pagan practice, and import new ones as well (2 Kings 21:6). He even set up in God's Temple an elaborately wrought Asherah, symbol of the goddess of sex and fertility. Not content with permitting idolatry in the land, Manasseh brought it right into Yahweh's special city and shrine. The lust provoking emblem was placed in the house, possibly within the Holy of Holies itself. By these blasphemous acts Manasseh annulled God's promises to permanently abide in that Temple (2 Kings 21:7).

God's promise to give the land of Canaan permanently to Israel was conditional. Only so long as the people faithfully obeyed the Law of Moses would they be allowed to remain in the land. Manasseh's improprieties forfeited this promise as well (2 Kings 21:8), for the people had been seduced by their king into the wiles of idolatry. This priestly nation which was intended to be sanctified to the Lord became worse than those indigenous nations which were destroyed by Joshua's armies. While the outward acts may have been the same, the sin of God's people was the greater because they sinned against light and in spite of God's revelation through Moses and the prophets (2 Kings 21:9).