2 Kings 21

MAnasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem In which time the Years of his Imprisonment are comprehended, 2 Chron. 33. 11.: and his mothers name was Hephzi-bah.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD Partly, by the instigation of the wicked Princes of Iudah, who in Hezekiah's time were secret Enemies to his Reformation, and now when their Fetters were knock't off by Hezekiah's death, break forth into open Hostility against it, and corrupt the Kings tender years with their wicked counsel; and principally, by his own vicious inclination., after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared... p altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven The Stars, which the Gentiles had transformed into gods. See on Deut. 4. 19., and served them.

And he built altars in the house of the LORD i. e. In the Temple its self, in the Holy-place; because this is distinguished from the courts of the house, ver. 5., of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my Name That place I have peculiarly Consecrated to my Worship and Honour: which made it the greater Injustice, and Impiety, and Sacriledge, to Alienate it from God, and to Dedicate it, or any part of it, especially the Temple, to the service of Idols, whom God abhorreth..

And he built altars for all the host of heaven, in the two courts The one of the Priests, the other of the People, 1 King. 6. 36. of the house of the LORD.

And he made his son pass through the fire Of which see the Notes on Lev. 18. 21. and 2 King. 16. 3., and observed times i. e. Lucky or unlucky days or seasons for the dispatch of businesses, according to the superstitious practise of the Heathens. See Esth. 3. 7. See also Lev. 19. 26. Deut. 18. 10, 11., and used inchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits, and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

And he set a graven image of the grove Either, First, The Image of that Baal which was worshipped in the Grove. Or, Secondly, A representation of the Grove, as may seem by comparing chap. 23. 6. Or, Thirdly, The Graven Image of Asherah, a god or goddess so called, possibly the same called elsewhere Ashtaroth. See Iudg. 6. 25, 28. 2 King. 23. 6. 2 Chron. 15. 16. that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name for ever.

Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land They shall no more be carried Captives into a strange Land, as it had happened before. which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.

But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel Partly, because they were not contented with those Idols which the Canaanites worshipped, but either themselves invented, or they borrowed from other Nations many new Idols and kinds of Idolatry; and partly, because as their light was far more clear, their obligations to God infinitely higher, and their helps and antidotes against Idolatry much stronger than the Canaanites had; so their sins, though the same in kind, were unspeakably worse in respect of these dreadful aggravations..

¶ And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,

Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites i. e. The Canaanitish Nations, all so called from one eminent part of them. See on Gen. 15. 16. did, which were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols By his Example, Encouragement, Counsel, Authority and Command..

Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle By the great commotion which such terrible reports shall cause in the hearts and heads of the hearers. See on 1 Sam. 3. 11. Ier. 19. 3..

And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria She shall have the same measure and lot, i. e. the same Judgments which Samaria had. The line is oft put for ones lot or portion, as Psal. 16. 6. 2 Cor. 10. 16. because mens portions or possessions used to be measured by Lines, Psal. 78. 55. Amos 7. 17. Or, it is a Metaphor from workmen who mark out by Lines what parts of the Building they would have thrown down, and what they would have stand. See Isa. 34. 11. Lam. 2. 8. Amos 7. 7, 8. Zech. 1. 16. Or, it is an allusion to that fact of David, who destroyed the Moabites by a measuring Line, 2 Sam. 8. 2., and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem, as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down As men do with a Dish that has been used, first wholly empty it of all that is in it, then throughly cleanse and wipe it; and lastly, turn it upside down, that nothing may remain in it; so will I deal with Ierusalem, thoroughly empty and purge it from all its wicked Inhabitants, and that so as to cut off all hopes of restitution..

And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance i. e. The Kingdom of Iudah, the only remainder of all the Tribes of Israel, which I did once choose for my Inheritance, but now, notwithstanding that priviledge, will utterly reject and forsake them., and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey, and a spoil to all their enemies;

Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day This sore Judgment, though it was chiefly inflicted for the sins of Manasseh and his Generation, yet had a respect unto all their former sins, the guilt whereof was upon this occasion revived. See Exod. 32. 34..

Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood The Blood of those Prophets and Righteous Men who either reproved his sinful practises, or refused to comply with his wicked commands and worship. very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, beside his sin i. e. His Idolatry, which is elsewhere called evil and corruption, and here sin, by way of emmency; which is the more considerable, because it is here compared with horrid cruelty, and implied to be worse than that, and more abominable in Gods sight, because it does more directly and immediately strike at the Glory and Purity of the Divine Majesty, by respect unto which all sins are to be measured. And this expression God here useth in opposition to the gross error of most men, who look upon Idolatry as a small sin, as a mere mistake of the mind, as the fruit of a good intention, and as an excess proceeding from Zeal in Religion. wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.

17... Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house Not in the Sepulchre of the Kings; either, by the peoples designation, who judged him unworthy of that honour; or rather, by his own choice and command, as a lasting Testimony of his sincere Repentance and Abhorrency of himself for his former Crimes., in the garden of Uzza Or, of King Uzziah, who possibly planted or enlarged it.: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

And he did th... which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.

And he walked in the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.

¶ And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.

And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

Now 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?

And he was buried in the sepulchre, in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.