2 Kings 21:16-26 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

Bible Comments

like Father, like Son

2 Kings 21:16-26

Manasseh shed much innocent blood, and among others, tradition has it that Isaiah was sawn asunder at his command, Hebrews 11:37. Amon followed in his father's steps. Here is the horror of sin! A man may repent and turn to God, but he cannot undo the effect of his evil course on those whom he has seduced. Probably, on his conversion to God, Manasseh used all the power at his command to induce Amon to avoid the sins of his own early life and to follow the example of his later years. But Amon would not listen. “He walked in all the way that his father walked in!”

No man sins by himself. The evil of his deeds is far-reaching. When once you have scattered thistledown-as you have sown, so will you reap. Christ's heaviest denunciations were launched against those who put an occasion to fall in the way of one of his little ones. God forgive us, if we are making life's battle harder for any soul, especially for our own child. “Take the safe path, father!” said a little boy as they were climbing a steep place. “Remember that I am coming.”

2 Kings 21:16-26

16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin 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?

18 And 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 stead.

19 Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

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

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

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

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

24 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.

25 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?

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