2 Kings 21

Manasseh, Judah’s longest-reigning king, undoes his father Hezekiah’s reforms and leads the nation into idolatry worse than that of the nations God drove out. God announces through the prophets that Jerusalem will fall. His son Amon follows the same path and is assassinated, and the young Josiah is placed on the throne.

2 Kings 21:1

Manasseh became king at only twelve and reigned fifty-five years, the longest reign of any king of Judah. A child on the throne was shaped by his advisers and the times. His long reign meant long consequences for the nation.

BSA: fifty-five (“fifty and five, a long period”): The length of his reign shows how deeply and for how long his influence shaped the people.

2 Kings 21:2

Manasseh’s sin is described as copying the abominations of the Canaanite nations whom God had driven out. Judah was now acting like the very people it had replaced. God’s people were becoming what they were called to be different from.

BSA: abominations (“disgusting practices, idolatrous rituals”): These were practices that God found revolting, not minor lapses of religion.

See also: Deuteronomy 18:9-12.

2 Kings 21:3

He rebuilt the shrines his godly father Hezekiah had torn down, and added altars to Baal and an Asherah pole, as wicked Ahab had done. He also bowed to the stars. Reform had not changed hearts deeply enough to last one generation.

BSA: host of heaven (“army, multitude”): The sun, moon and stars were treated as a heavenly army to be worshiped instead of the Creator who made them.

See also: 2 Kings 18:4.

2 Kings 21:4-5

Worst of all, he put pagan altars inside the LORD’s own temple and in both of its courtyards. God had said His Name would dwell there. Manasseh made God’s house a shrine for the stars.

BSA: Name (“My identity, honor, and character”): God’s Name in the temple meant His own character and presence were bound to that place, which made the insult greater.

See also: 1 Kings 8:29.

2 Kings 21:6

Manasseh burned his own son in the fire and turned to sorcery, omens, and those who claimed to speak with the dead. God had forbidden every one of these. He sought guidance and power anywhere except from the LORD.

BSA: mediums (“those who contact the dead”): Instead of listening to God’s living word, he tried to get messages from the dead.

See also: Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:10-11.

2 Kings 21:7-8

He set the carved Asherah image in the temple itself. God had promised David and Solomon that His Name would stay there and that Israel would stay in the land, on one condition: obedience to the Law of Moses. The promise was real, and so was the condition.

BSA: forever (“for all eternity, always”): God’s commitment to the place was lasting, yet it called for faithful hearts in return.

See also: 2 Samuel 7:10; 1 Kings 9:6-7.

2 Kings 21:9

The people would not listen, and Manasseh led them further astray, until they did worse than the nations God had destroyed. Leaders carry great responsibility, but the people also chose. Each is accountable for refusing to hear.

BSA: led them astray (“seduced them, caused them to err”): His influence pulled the people away from God like a lure, not just by example but by active promotion.

2 Kings 21:10-11

God did not act without warning. He sent His prophets to say that Manasseh had been worse than the Amorites, the Canaanite peoples whose wickedness had cost them the land. His idols made Judah sin too.

BSA: Amorites (“a Canaanite tribe, the original inhabitants”): They stood for the peoples judged for their evil, and Judah was now measured against them.

See also: Genesis 15:16.

2 Kings 21:12

God announces a calamity on Jerusalem and Judah so terrible that anyone hearing of it will be shaken. The coming judgment is a solemn consequence of long-ignored warnings, not a sudden whim.

BSA: reverberate (“tingle, resound”): The news would ring in the ears like a shock, leaving a lasting impression on all who hear.

Hebrew: תִּצַּלְנָה (titsallenah, H6750) — “will tingle.” The Hebrew word describes the ringing, tingling sensation in the ears at shocking news, as when a loud sound leaves them buzzing.

See also: 1 Samuel 3:11.

2 Kings 21:13

Two images are used. The measuring line and plumb line, used for building, were used to mark Samaria and Ahab’s house for destruction. Jerusalem will be judged by the same standard. It will be wiped like a bowl and turned upside down, left empty.

BSA: wipe out (“erase, blot out”): The picture is of a dish scrubbed and drained completely, with nothing left in it.

See also: Isaiah 34:11.

2 Kings 21:14-15

God will give up the remnant of His inheritance to their enemies, since His people have angered Him since the exodus. His own people are called His inheritance, which shows how painful this abandonment is. Judgment falls on those He loved.

BSA: inheritance (“possessions, heritage”): Israel was God’s treasured possession, so losing them hurts Him too.

See also: Deuteronomy 32:9.

2 Kings 21:16

Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other. This was on top of leading the people into sin. Jewish tradition says the prophet Isaiah was among the victims, but the text itself only says that blood was everywhere.

BSA: innocent (“guiltless, morally clean”): Those he killed had done nothing wrong, and God sees every such death.

See also: 2 Kings 24:3-4.

2 Kings 21:17-18

The royal records have the rest of Manasseh’s story, and his death is calmly recorded. He was buried in his own palace garden, not in the royal tombs, a quiet end for such a long reign. 2 Chronicles 33 adds that he humbled himself and repented in captivity.

See also: 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.

2 Kings 21:19-20

Amon, Manasseh’s son, became king at twenty-two and reigned only two years. His mother is named, as with every king of Judah. He did evil in the LORD’s sight just as his father had done.

BSA: evil (“bad, morally wrong”): The same verdict given on his father is given on him, showing the pattern repeated.

2 Kings 21:21-22

Amon followed his father’s idolatry and abandoned the God of his fathers. Notice that he copied Manasseh’s sins but not his later repentance. The path of idols leads away from the LORD, step by step.

BSA: abandoned (“forsook, turned away from”): He deliberately left the God his family had known, leaving Him behind.

See also: 2 Chronicles 33:21-23.

2 Kings 21:23-24

Amon’s own servants plotted against him and killed him in his palace. The people of the land then executed the conspirators and crowned his young son Josiah. In the middle of chaos, God preserved David’s line and prepared a king for renewal.

BSA: conspired (“plotted, tied together”): The picture is of men binding themselves together in a secret plan.

See also: 2 Kings 22:1.

2 Kings 21:25-26

Amon’s story closes with the usual note about the royal records and his burial in the garden of Uzza, as his father was. His son Josiah takes the throne. After two dark reigns, a new chapter begins with hope.

BSA: Josiah (“whom Jehovah heals”): The name means that the LORD heals, a fitting hint of the recovery that this king would bring.