Chapter 21

1 Manasseh’s reign. 3 His great idolatry. 10 His wickedness causeth prophecies against Judah. 17 Amon succeedeth him. 19 Amon’s wicked reign. 23 He being slain by his servants, and those murderers slain by the people, Josiah is made king.

1. Manasseh. On Manasseh’s accession and reign see p. 88.

Hephzi-bah. Literally, “my delight is in her.” According to Jewish tradition Hephzibah was the daughter of the prophet Isaiah. No weight need be attached to this tradition. The name is later applied to Zion restored (Isa. 62:4).

2. Which was evil. Manasseh had a good father, but he did not follow in his father’s footsteps. The evil seeds sown by Ahaz had produced their fruit of iniquity in many of the inhabitants of the land, and now that Hezekiah was gone, evil once more came into the ascendancy.

3. Built up again. Manasseh did much to counteract the good done by his father. The idolatrous, licentious, cruel, and superstitious rites in use among the surrounding nations, which had been prohibited by Hezekiah, were brought back. Paganism revived, idols were worshiped, and Judah went far along the path that was to fill up the measure of the nation’s iniquity.

Altars for Baal. The worship of Baal, which had flourished under Athaliah (ch. 11:18) and Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:2), and which was so common in Israel, was now brought back to Judah.

Host of heaven. The sun, moon, and stars. The worship of the sun accounted for the sun chariots and horses that were placed at the entrance to the Temple (ch. 23:11).

6. Pass through the fire. The awful rite of human sacrifice seems to have had a peculiar fascination for wicked men. Ahaz had burned his son in the fire (ch. 16:3; 2 Chron. 28:3), and in the last days of Judah this cruel abomination was mentioned as one of the outstanding offenses (Jer. 7:31, 32; 19:2–6; 32:35; Eze. 16:20; 20:26; 23:37).

Familiar spirits. Such practices were forbidden to the Hebrews under penalty of death (Lev. 20:27).

7. In the house. Manasseh went further in his abominations than any of the kings of Judah before him. This abomination that Manasseh placed in the Temple, Josiah later brought out and burned at the brook Kidron (ch. 23:6).

9. Than did the nations. The heathen inhabitants of Palestine were destroyed because of their debasing practices, but now the professed people of God had sunk so low that they surpassed the heathen in their corrupt and abominable worship. Immorality, cruelty, and oppression went hand in hand with the degradation of religion. The terrible sin of Judah lay in the fact that they forsook their own pure form of religion and the one true God for the most corrupt forms of worship and the most debased types of idolatry.

10. The prophets. None of the prophets contemporary with Manasseh are certainly known. Isaiah was one of the first to fall in the religious persecution (see PK 382).

11. The Amorites. The Amorites appear here as representatives of the old Canaanite nations (see Gen. 15:16; 1 Kings 21:26; Eze. 16:3; Amos 2:9, 10).

12. His ears shall tingle. See the same phrase in 1 Sam. 3:11 and Jer. 19:3.

13. The line of Samaria. God will measure Jerusalem by the same standard by which He had measured Samaria (see Amos 7:7–9; Lam. 2:8). No partiality will be shown. Inasmuch as Judah had before her the example of her sister Israel and had failed to profit by the example, she will be held even more accountable.

As a man wipeth a dish. Jerusalem will be a mere dish in the hand of the Lord, to be thoroughly cleansed by Him. The word “man” does not occur in the Hebrew, and the verb should be translated with a general subject, “as someone wipes a dish.”

14. Of their enemies. See Deut. 28:36, 37; Isa. 42:22, 24; Jer. 30:15, 16.

15. Since the day. The Lord had borne long with His people. He treated them better than they deserved, sparing them time and again when their sins merited destruction.

16. Shed innocent blood. Manasseh was not content with encouraging evil; he put forth strenuous efforts to discourage good. There were many people who endeavored to remain faithful to God who now became the objects of his bitter hatred. Throughout the land the righteous were persecuted. Isaiah, who had been so stalwart a witness for truth and righteousness, suffered martyrdom at the hands of those who were determined to oppose the religious and political reforms for which he labored (see PK 382).

17. The rest of the acts. The most important of the items concerning Manasseh that the writer of Kings omits are his capture by the captains of the king of Assyria, his removal to Babylon, his repentance there, his restoration to his kingdom, and his religious reforms upon his return (2 Chron. 33:11–19). Esarhaddon includes Manasseh in a list of 22 kings of Western Asia of whom he demanded timber to be sent to Nineveh. Ashurbanipal, who succeeded Esarhaddon, includes Manasseh in a list of 22 kings who paid tribute to him.

His sin. The account of Manasseh in Kings gives only a few details concerning the iniquities of his reign. Not only did he offer his own son as a human sacrifice but he encouraged such abominations in the Valley of Hinnom (2 Chron. 33:6; cf. 2 Kings 23:10). It was evidently he who permitted the establishment of houses for the sodomites next to the Temple (2 Kings 23:7) and who may have removed the ark of the covenant from the Temple (2 Chron. 35:3).

18. Of his own house. There is no record of any kings of Judah from Ahaz onward being buried in the sepulchers of the kings of Judah.

Garden of Uzza. Both Manasseh and his son Amon (v. 26) were buried here. There is no further information available concerning this site. It was probably a garden formerly owned by a man named Uzza which was in the neighborhood of the palace gardens and was purchased for use as a burial plot.

19. Amon. This name is identical with that of the Egyptian sun-god Amen. It would appear that Manasseh selected this name for his son to show his regard for that Egyptian deity.

20. That which was evil. Manasseh’s apostasy had left a stamp of evil upon Amon that shaped his life beyond recall. During the latter part of Manasseh’s reign the idolatrous party had been held in check (2 Chron. 33:16), but now it regained control, and the entire land was swept along in a tide of iniquity. As usual, moral and religious license went hand in hand. The prophet Zephaniah, who wrote during the time of Josiah, has given a graphic description of the unhappy situation (see Zeph. 1:8, 9; 3:1–4).

22. Forsook the Lord God. Amon seems to have given up all pretense of being a worshiper of Jehovah. He refused to humble himself before the Lord as his father had done and “trespassed more and more” (2 Chron. 33:23).

23. Conspired against him. No reason for the conspiracy is given. There might have been some personal grudge against the king on the part of the palace officials, or the assassination might have been the result of a reaction against the extreme idolatry of the king. Whatever the cause, the conspiracy testifies to dissatisfaction with royal policy.

24. All them that had conspired. Some encouragement is to be found in the fact that assassination was regarded as a crime and that the conspirators were punished by popular demand. What the intentions of the conspirators were, has not been revealed. Some have conjectured that it was their purpose to put an end to the house of David and place a new dynasty upon the throne. Had this been the intention, however, it is hardly likely that Josiah would have been allowed to live. He was in the power of the conspirators.

Ellen G. White comments

1–26PK 381–383

11, 14, 16        PK 382

21–24PK 383