_MANASSEH REIGNS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS. HE WORSHIPS IDOLS, AND FILLS JERUSALEM WITH INNOCENT BLOOD. HE IS SUCCEEDED BY AMON, WHO IS NO BETTER THAN HIS FATHER, AND IS SLAIN AFTER A REIGN OF TWO YEARS. JOSIAH HIS SON SUCCEEDS HIM._ _Before Christ 698._... [ Continue Reading ]
HE DID THAT WHICH WAS EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD— Hezekiah's first care had been to rout all idolatry out of his kingdom, and to restore the service of the temple to its pristine order and splendour. His graceless son, on the contrary, made it his study to banish religion and morality, to revive... [ Continue Reading ]
A GROVE— Or, _Aschera_ [_Astarte_].... [ Continue Reading ]
IMAGE OF THE GROVE, &C,— _Image of Aschera,_ [_Astarte_] _which he had made by the house,_ &c. Houbigant. REFLECTIONS.—Like the seven years famine of Egypt, which made the former plenty forgotten, the wickedness of Manasseh blots out all the glorious work that his father had so piously accomplished... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL STRETCH OVER JERUSALEM THE LINE OF SAMARIA, &C.— See 2 Samuel 8:2. The expression, _I will wipe Jerusalem,_ &c. signifies, "I will take away all its inhabitants, as a dish is freed from its contents, by wiping, and turning it upside down.... [ Continue Reading ]
MANASSEH SHED INNOCENT BLOOD— Among the rest of the prophets and other innocent persons put to death by Manasseh, Isaiah is generally numbered, who is said to have been _sawn asunder with a wooden saw,_ to which the author of the epistle to the Hebrews is thought to allude, Hebrews 11:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
MANASSEH—WAS BURIED—IN THE GARDEN OF UZZA— This garden, as some think, was made in that very spot of ground where Uzziah was struck dead for touching the ark of the Lord, 2 Samuel 6:7. But others imagine, that this was the place where Uzziah, who died a leper, was buried, 2 Chronicles 26:23 and that... [ Continue Reading ]