XXXIII. THE REIGNS OF MANASSEH AND AMON. (1-20) The history of Manasseh. Duration and character of the reign. Restoration of idolatry (2 Chronicles 33:1). This section is closely parallel with 2 Kings 21:1; 2 Chronicles 33:1; 2 Chronicles 33:5 are word for word the same in both.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR. — _And._ (See margin.) BROKEN DOWN. — 2 Chronicles 23:17; 2 Chronicles 31:1 (“threw down”). Kings has “destroyed” (_‘ibbad_). BAALIM. — _The Baals_ — _i.e.,_ the different images of Baal. Kings has the singular, both here and in the next word, “groves,” or rather _Asheras_ (_‘Ash_ç_rôth;_ Kin... [ Continue Reading ]
ALSO HE BUILT... IN JERUSALEM. — Literally as Kings. Manasseh built altars in the Temple, as Ahaz had done (2 Kings 16:10, _seq._). SHALL MY NAME BE FOR EVER. — A heightening of the phrase in Kings, “I will set mv name.”... [ Continue Reading ]
HE. — Emphatic. Not in Kings. CAUSED HIS CHILDREN ... FIRE. — The plural, as in 2 Chronicles 28:3, is rhetorical. Kings, “his son.” IN THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM. — Explanatory addition by the chronicler. ALSO HE OBSERVED TIMES, AND USED ENCHANTMENTS. — _And he practised augury and divinatio... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SET ... HAD MADE. — _And he set the carven image of the idol which he had made. “_Idol” (_sèmel_) explains “Asherah,” the term used in Kings. Both “carven image “and “idol” (Authorised Version, _figure_) occur in Deuteronomy 4:16. THE HOUSE OF GOD. — Chronicles has added, _of God,_ by way of... [ Continue Reading ]
REMOVE. — Kings has a less common expression, “cause to wander.” FROM OUT OF (_upon_) THE LAND (_ground_) WHICH I HAVE APPOINTED. — Kings, with which the versions agree, has the certainly original “from the ground which I gave.” SO THAT. — _If only._ AND THE STATUTES AND THE ORDINANCES. — An expl... [ Continue Reading ]
SO MANASSEH... HEATHEN. — Literally, _And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do evil more than the nations._ Thenius thinks that the words _and Manasseh.... astray,_ followed in the primary document immediately upon _and he set the graven image in the house;_ the intermed... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SPAKE TO MANASSEH. — “By the hand of his servants the prophets.” See 2 Kings 21:10, where the substance of the prophetic message is given; and it is added (2 Chronicles 33:16) that Manasseh also shed very much innocent blood, “till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other.” Th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE. — _And._ THE CAPTAINS OF THE HOST OF THE KING OF ASSYRIA. — The generals of Esarhaddon, or rather, perhaps, of Assurbanipal. The former, who reigned from 681-668 B.C., has recorded the fact that Manasseh was his vassal. He says: “And I assembled the kings of the land of Hatti, and the mar... [ Continue Reading ]
MANASSEH’S CAPTIVITY AND REPENTANCE — HIS RESTORATION AND REFORMS (2 Chronicles 33:11). This section is peculiar to the Chronicle, and none has excited more scepticism among modern critics. The progress of cuneiform research, however, has proved the perfect possibility of the facts most disputed, v... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE WAS IN AFFLICTION. — See this phrase in 2 Chronicles 28:22. HE BESOUGHT. — Literally, _stroked the face,_ a curious realistic phrase occurring in Exodus 32:11. THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS. — Whom he had forsaken for the gods of aliens. Some MSS., and the Syriac, Targum, and Arabic insert “Jehov... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS INTREATED OF HIM. — 1 Chronicles 5:20. AND BROUGHT HIM AGAIN TO JERUSALEM. — The Assyrian monarch after a time saw fit to restore Manasseh to his throne as a vassal king. The case is exactly parallel to that of the Egyptian king _Nikû_ (Necho I.), who was bound hand and foot, and sent to Nin... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW AFTER THIS ... VALLEY. — Rather, _And afterwards he built an outer wall to the city of David westward unto Gihon in the ravine._ Manasseh completed the wall begun by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:5). This highly circumstantial account of the public works undertaken by Manasseh after his restoration,... [ Continue Reading ]
TOOK AWAY THE STRANGE GODS. — Comp. 2 Chronicles 33:3. For the phrase “strange gods” (_ĕlôhê nçkâr_)_,_ see Genesis 35:2. THE IDOL. — That is, the Asherah (2 Chronicles 33:3; 2 Chronicles 33:7; 2 Kings 21:7; 2 Kings 17:16). IN THE MOUNT OF THE HOUSE. — The temple hill. Thenius says: the courts wit... [ Continue Reading ]
REPAIRED. — Heb., _built, i.e.,_ rebuilt. Ewald concludes from this that Manasseh had removed the altar of burnt offering; and from Jeremiah 3:16 that he destroyed the ark of the covenant. (Some Hebrew MSS., and many editions read _prepared_ instead of _built;_ but the Syriac and Arabic have the lat... [ Continue Reading ]
CONCLUSION OF THE REIGN (2 Chronicles 33:18). (18) HIS PRAYER UNTO HIS GOD. — This prayer may or may not have been the basis of the Apocryphal _Prayer of Manasses,_ preserved in the LXX. THE WORDS OF THE SEERS THAT SPAKE TO HIM. — See Note on 2 Chronicles 33:10, _supr._ These “words of the seers”... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS PRAYER ALSO ... OF HIM. — _And his prayer, and the hearing him._ Literally, _and the being propitious to him_ (the same verb as in 2 Chronicles 33:13 and Genesis 25:21). ALL HIS SINS, AND HIS TRESPASS. — _All his sin and his unfaithfulness._ 2 Kings 21:17 has, “And his sin that he sinned.” The... [ Continue Reading ]
IN HIS OWN HOUSE. — 2 Kings 21:18, “and he was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza.” The words, _in the garden of,_ seem to have fallen out of our text. So LXX., ἐν παραδείσῳ οἴκου αὐτοῦ; Syriac, “in his house, in the garden of treasure.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REIGN OF AMON (2 Chronicles 33:21. Comp. 2 Kings 21:19). (21) AMON WAS TWO AND TWENTY YEARS OLD. — So 2 Kings 21:19, which adds his mother’s name and parentage.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR AMON SACRIFICED. — Literally, _and to all the carven images which Manasseh his father had made did Amon sacrifice._ (Comp. 2 Kings 21:21, “and he walked in all the way wherein his father had walked, and served the idols which his father had served, and worshipped them.” _Idols_ in the above pass... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HUMBLED NOT HIMSELF... MORE AND MORE. — This verse is added by the chronicler. BUT AMON TRESPASSED MORE AND MORE. — Literally, _for he, Amon, multiplied trespass. _... [ Continue Reading ]
SLEW. — _Smote._ The verse is identical with 2 Kings 21:24, save that it has “smote” plural instead of singular, which latter is more correct. It may be that the facts thus briefly recorded represent a fierce conflict between the party of religious reform and that of religious reaction, in which the... [ Continue Reading ]