2 Kings 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE LAST GREAT REFORMATION

2 Kings 21:1 to 2 Kings 23:27

Good King Hezekiah was followed on the throne by the most wicked king to ever rule Judah. All the religious gains effected by Hezekiah were soon lost, and the nation plunged anew into idolatry and all its attendant evils. Political independence, so bravely engineered by the father, was willingly surrendered by the son. Judah again fell into the orbit of Assyrian vassal kingdoms. For over half a century the abscess of sin festered in spite of the eleventh-hour effort of a chastened Manasseh to heal the wound. But with the assassination of Manasseh’s son Amon after a brief reign the stage was set for the last and greatest reformation in the history of Judah.

REVIEW OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I. FACTS TO MASTER

A. Identify each of the following:

1. Manasseh

2. Baal

3. Asahiah

4. Amon

5. Asherah

6. Huldah

7. Josiah

8. Shaphan

9. Joshua 4. Moloch/Milcom

10. Hilkiah

11. Nathan-melech

12. Ashtoreth

13. Ahikam

14. Chemosh

15. Achbor

B. Identify each of the following places:

1. garden of Uzza

2. Topheth

3. Kidron

4. Valley of Hinnom

5. Bethel

6. Samaria

7. Geba

8. mount of corruption

9. Beersheba

C. How did each of the following figure in the events of this chapter?

1. line and plummet

2. unleavened bread

3. a dish

4. horses and chariots

5. a book

6. bones

7. ashes

8. Passover

9. powder

II. QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Manasseh was the wicked son of a righteous king; Josiah was the righteous son of a wicked king. What factors may account for this situation?

Manasseh reigned longer than any other king of Judah. Why did God permit such a wicked man to retain the throne for so long?

Was the decree pronounced against Judah and Jerusalem during the reign of Manasseh irrevocable?

How old is the tradition that Isaiah the prophet was slain by Manasseh? How would you assess the historicity of this tradition?

Manasseh repented of his wayward life toward the end of his reign. What success did he have in undoing his own life of sin? What lesson is there in this?

How can you account for Josiah’s righteousness at such a young age?

Josiah began his reforms in his eighth year, yet it was not until his eighteenth year that repair work on the Temple commenced. Why this delay?

What was the book found in the Temple in 621 B.C.? For what purpose was this book taken to Huldah?

Huldah is called a prophetess. What other Biblical women have this title?

What was Jeremiah’s relationship to the reform of Josiah?

Huldah predicted that Josiah would die in peace (2 Kings 22:20), but in fact he died in battle at Megiddo. How is this to be explained?

What was Josiah’s intention when he burned bones on altars throughout the land?

In what sense was the Passover celebrated in Josiah’s day unlike any Passover celebrated since the days of the Judges? (2 Kings 23:22)

Scripture states there was no king like Josiah before or after him (2 Kings 23:25). Virtually the same thing is said of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:5). How can the statement be true with regard to both kings?

A city gate of Jerusalem

Armed force in the day of the king

Drawings by Horace Knowles from the British and Foreign Bible Society

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).

2 Kings 21:10-15

C. THE PROPHETIC PRONOUNCEMENT AGAINST JERUSALEM 21:10-15

**TRANSLATION

(10) And the LORD spoke by the hand of His prophets, saying, (11) Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done evil more than all which the Amorites that were before him had done, and has caused Judah to sin with his idols, (12) therefore thus says the LORD the God of Israel: Behold I am about to bring evil upon Jerusalem and Judah which all who hear of it, both of their ears shall tingle. (13) And I will stretch out over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping and turning it upside down. (14) And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance, and I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become spoil and prey to all their enemies. (15) Because they did evil in My eyes that they might provoke Me, from the day that their fathers went out of Egypt, even unto this day.

COMMENTS**

God did not leave Himself without a vigorous voice of protest during the corrosive reign of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:10). The names of those who preached the Word during that terrible time are unknown. Isaiah may have preached in the early years of Manasseh, Nahum possibly toward the close of his reign. But the great heroes of that day remain anonymous. The author of Kings however gives a summary of the message which they were preaching. Because Manasseh had done more evil than the Amorites, the pre-Israelite inhabitants of the land (2 Kings 21:11), God would bring a great calamity upon the nation. News of the extraordinary judgment would shock and pain all who heard of it like a piercing note pains one’s ears (2 Kings 21:12). The line of Samaria would be stretched over Jerusalem, i.e., Jerusalem would experience the same fate as Samaria which had been destroyed in 722 B.C. God applies the measuring line, a perfectly uniform standard, to all nations. The plummet which God had placed alongside the house of Ahab in the North would now be placed alongside the house of David.[632] Jerusalem would be emptied of inhabitants as a man empties scraps from a dish into a garbage pan (2 Kings 21:13). The remnant of His peoplethe nation Judahwould now be forsaken by the Lord just as He had abandoned the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel. As a result, the people of Judah would be conquered and spoiled by their enemies (2 Kings 21:14). This terrible tragedy would come about because of the moral and spiritual depravity of Judah which had its roots in the long-distant past and which culminated in the reign of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:15).

[632] Buildings in Palestine had to be checked periodically by line and plummet to determine damage that had been done by earthquakes. Bulging walls were a public menace which had to be destroyed.

2 Kings 21:16-18

C. CONCLUSION OF THE REIGN OF MANASSEH 21:16-18

**TRANSLATION

(16) And also Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin in which he made Judah to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. (17) Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all which he did, and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? (18) And Manasseh slept with his fathers and he was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his place.

COMMENTS**

The national decadence culminated in a bloody persecution of the faithful by the ruthless Manasseh. The Holy City was filled with blood and violence from one end to the other (2 Kings 21:16). Josephus (Ant., X, 3.1) declares that Manasseh cruelly put to death all the righteous of the nation and did not even spare the prophets. A widespread ancient tradition names Isaiah as one of the victims of this persecution.

Important additional information concerning the reign of Manasseh comes from the Assyrian monuments and from the Biblical Book of Chronicles. In the annals of the Assyrian Esarhaddon it is noted that Manasseh was a faithful vassal, even contributing supporting troops for the Great King’s invasion of Egypt. At some point in his reignperhaps toward the very endManasseh must have rebelled against his overlord. The Assyrians took Manasseh captive to Babylon.[633] While in his affliction there, Manasseh repented of his sins against God and man. When the Assyrians restored him to his throne, Manasseh made a valiant effort to put away the idolatrous practices and paraphernalia which he himself had introduced into the land. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had gone to decay, and re-established so far as he could the worship of the Lord (2 Chronicles 33:11-17). It is not entirely clear why the author of Kings chose to omit the account of Manasseh’s late repentance.

[633] Supplemental information can be found in ANET, p. 289.

After referring his readers to the standard book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah (NOT the Biblical book of Chronicles), the author closes His account of this king by noting that he was buried in the garden of his own house. (2 Kings 21:18). This garden of Uzza may have been purchased by Manasseh with the object of converting it into a burial ground.[634] The garden has been located in the general vicinity of the Pool of Siloam on the east side of Jerusalem.[635]

[634] Manasseh and his son Amon are the only two kings said to have been buried in this garden. Was there no more burial space in the royal necropolis? Or did the idolatry of these two kings disqualify them from burial there? [635] Finley, BBC, p. 491.

2 Kings 21:19-26

II. THE ACCESSION AND ASSASSINATION OF AMON 21:19-26

**TRANSLATION

(19) Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and two years he reigned in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. (20) And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD as Manasseh his father had done. (21) And he walked in all the ways in which his father had walked, and he served the idols which his father had served, and he worshiped them. (22) And he forsook the LORD the god of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. (23) And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and they slew the king in his house. (24) And the people of the land slew all who had conspired against Amon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place. (25) And the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? (26) And he was buried in his sepulcher in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his son reigned in his place.**

Fourteenth King of Juduh AMON BEN MANASSEH 642-640 B.C. (Training, or skilled)

2 Kings 21:19-26; 2 Chronicles 33:21-25

Contemporary Prophet Nuhum?

Mother: Meshullemethi

Appraisal: Bad

Is it fit to say to a king, You are wicked? and to princes. You are ungodly? Job 34:8

COMMENTS

Considering the lengthy reign of his father, Amon was quite young when he came to the throne at the age of twenty-two. His short two year reign is given but scant attention by the author of Kings.[636] Like his father, Amon did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 21:20). Amon restored all the idolatrous and wicked practices which his father had upheld during most of his reign, including child sacrifice. He served, i.e., worshiped, all the idols his father had servedBaal, Ashtoreth, Moloch, and Asherah (2 Kings 21:21). While other wicked kings of Judah continued to worship Yahweh along with the idols of heathendom, Amon made no pretense of worshiping the Lord. Of only Manasseh and his son does the author of Kings say, he forsook the Lord God of his fathers (2 Kings 21:22).

[636] It is apparent that Amon was not elevated to coregency in the reign of his father. The failure of Manasseh to appoint a coregent in spite of his age is the first lapse of this custom in Judah since Azariah (Uzziah) became coregent with Amaziah in 790 B.C.

Palace intrigue was not as common in Judah as it had been in Israel. No clue is given as to what might have triggered the conspiracy against Amon. Probably Amon’s allegiance to Assyria aroused the indignation of many patriots who desired freedom.[637] In any case, the attendants of the king fell upon him in his own house and slew him (2 Kings 21:23). These conspirators apparently did not have the support of the powerful people of the land, i.e., the landed gentry, for those who had murdered the king were swiftly executed.[638] If the conspirators had intended to bring about a change of dynasty, their plot failed. The people of the land sought out the rightful heir, though he was but a lad of eight, and made him king (2 Kings 21:24).

[637] Gray (OTL, 712) suggests the assassins were Egyptian agents. [638] A, Malamat suggests that the assassins were slain out of fear of reprisals from the powerful Ashurbanipal who was campaigning in the west at this time. See IEJ. III (1953), pp. 26-29. Cf. also JNES, XII (1953), pp. 56-58.

No information about any other significant acts of Amon has survived, though there must have been additional material in the annals from which the author derived his material (2 Kings 21:25). Amon probably remained a submissive vassal of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal during his two years on the throne. Amon was buried in the sepulcher which his father had constructed in what formerly had been the garden of Uzza (2 Kings 21:26).