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Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
Verse 1. Twelve. Being born three years after his father’s recovery.—Fifty. Including the years of captivity.
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, after the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
Verse 2. Idols. Hebrew “abominations,” ( Calmet.) as their worship was attended with the greatest infamy and dissolution, and was in itself the source of God’s chastisements. Bible.
For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel did, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.
Verse 3. Groves. Hebrew Ashera, “the grove,” or the idol of Astarte, ( Calmet.) as both were worshipped. Bible.—Achab, whom he imitated also in spilling the blood of the saints. Menochius.
He built altars in the LORD’s house, of which the LORD said, “I will put my name in Jerusalem.”
Verse 4. Altars, in honour of the sun, moon, and stars, ( Bible.) in the courts of the priests and of the people. 2 Chronicles 33:4.
He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the LORD’s house.
He made his son to pass through the fire, practiced sorcery, used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He did much evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger.
Verse 6. Fire, for purification, or as a holocaust to Moloch. See Calmet. 16:3.—Divination, or, “he observed times,” Arab. Mont.—Omens. Prot. “used enchantments,” ( Bible.) by means of brass or of serpents, and so forth Calmet.—Septuagint agrees with the Vulg. “he took notice of birds.” Bible.—Pythons. That is, diviners by spirits ( Ch). particularly by Apollo. He authorized and encouraged such ventriloquists, and so forth Leviticus 19:31.—Soothsayers, who inspected the entrails of victims, to foretell future things. Calmet.—Prot. “He dealt with familiar spirits and wizards.” Bible.
He set the engraved image of Asherah 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, I will put my name forever;
Verse 7. Of the grove. Hebrew “a graven thing of Ashera,” the grove or Astarte, ( Bible.) verse 3. This was an engraving in sculpture of a sacred grove. Sa. Calmet. 23:6. Tirinus.—My name. I alone will be adored, and there allow an altar to be erected. Bible.
I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only 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 didn’t listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
Verse 9. More, because they had received more favours and instructions from above. Worthington.
The LORD spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,
Verse 10. Prophets, Joel, Osee, Amos, Nahum, Jonas, Abdias, Micheas, and particularly by Isaias, who was related to the king. Tirinus.—Tradition informs us, that Manasses was so irritated, that he ordered Isaias to be slain with a wooden saw, (Saint Augustine de Calmet. D. xviii. 24.) for greater torment; ( Calmet.) and his companions were daily executed, Joseph. x. 3.—Isaias (22:13) seems to pronounce his sin irremissible, ( Calmet.) or that he should not, at least, escape the punishment of it, as long as he lived. But we are assured that the eyes of Manasses were at last opened by adversity, and that he performed many laudable things after his return from captivity; (2 Chronicles 33) so that the latter part of his reign resembled that of his father; though the beginning had been like that of the impious Achab. His coming to the throne so soon, before his pious father could have time to impress upon his mind the truths of salvation, had nearly proved his ruin. The sins of my youth, and my ignorances, remember not, O Lord, Psalms 24:7. Bible.
“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to sin with his idols;
Verse 11. Doings. Hebrew “idols,” verse 2. See Calmet. 17:12. Bible.
therefore the LORD the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.
Verse 12. Tingle, through astonishment, as if he had been stunned with too loud a sound. 1 Kennicott. 3:11. Calmet.
I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plumb line of Ahab’s house; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
Verse 13. The line, or rope, to pull down the walls, Lament. 2:8. ( Calmet.) 2 Kennicott. 17:13. Jerusalem, which has imitated Samaria in sinning, shall experience the same fate; the same weight of punishment shall fall upon the royal family, as upon the house of Achab. Bible.—The prophets frequently entitle their menaces a weight, or burden. Isaiah 13:1. Menochius.—Septuagint have, “the balance of the house, and so forth” as if God had weighed all the good and evil, and would now reward the people accordingly, ( Bible.) with judgment. D.—Table, or board, covered with wax. The ancients were accustomed to write in this manner with a style which was sharp at one end and blunt at the other. Altera pars revocat quicquid pars altera fecit. Ænig. Symponii. When the wax was rendered smooth, no vestige of the former writing could appear, and God threatened to destroy Jerusalem, in like manner. Hebrew is variously translated. Calmet.—Septuagint “I will wipe out Jerusalem as an alabaster vase is wiped, and turned downwards.” Prot. “as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” Bible.—Often. 1. Under Manasses; 2. under Josias and Joachaz; 3. under the last kings of Juda. 2 Chronicles 23. and so forth Tirinus.
I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will become a prey and a plunder to all their enemies,
Verse 14. Leave. Septuagint “with horror,” απεασομαι ( Bible.) “I will cast off.” So Chal. Syr. and so forth—Remnants. Juda, and so forth who shall be treated like the ten tribes. Calmet.—All shared in the punishment, though some preserved the true religion. Psalms 88:35. Worthington.
because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’”
Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; in addition to his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the LORD’s sight.
Verse 16. Mouth. Chal. “extremity.” All was full of blood, and impure idols, verse 11.—Besides, (absque) “without” mentioning his other scandalous sins of idolatry.
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Verse 17. Sinned. It is rather wonderful that his repentance is not here noticed; but we find it mentioned 2 Chronicles 33:12. Bible.—He was probably taken prisoner by Thartan, general of Sargon, or Asarhaddon, who had reunited the two kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon. Isaiah 20:1. In prison Manasses composed a penitential prayer, which is not absolutely rejected by the Church, but left in the rank of Apocryphal writings; ( Calmet.) the authority of which is not clearly ascertained. Bible.—The Greek church admits this prayer into her Euchologium, ( Calmet.) or Office-book. Bible.—Being liberated, probably by Saosduchin, Manasses did all things well, only he left the high places, where the people had been accustomed to sacrifice to the Lord. Hozai wrote his history. 2 Chronicles 33:19.
Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his place.
Verse 18. Oza, a private man, to whom it had belonged; ( Menochius.) or the place where the Levite had been punished for touching the ark; (1 Kennicott. 6:8) or, in fine, the garden to which king Ozias had retired after he became a leper. Calmet.—It is said, that Manasses chose this place for his tomb out of humility. Grotius.
Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, as Manasseh his father did.
Verse 20. Done, in his youth, flattering himself that he should also repent, when he had gratified his passions (Glycas) but God presently chastised this presumption, after suffering him to reign only two years. Tirinus.
He walked in all the ways that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them;
and he abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and didn’t walk in the way of the LORD.
The servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king to death in his own house.
But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.