YHWH Prophesies Destruction And Misery On An Unfaithful People (2 Kings 21:10-16).
These prophecies were made during the reign of Manasseh. Indeed the Chronicler made clear that many seers prophesied during his reign (2 Chronicles 33:18), seeking to turn him back to righteousness. And they are here followed by a summary of the grossness of Manasseh's evil ways prior to his own period of exile.
Interestingly, in spite of past precedents, there is no mention of exile in the prophecies, although it might be read in simply because it was inevitable in such circumstances. The thought is rather of the thoroughness of YHWH's judgment, and the total humiliation of His people. (The description could in fact have been applied to any of the times when Jerusalem was taken and its people despoiled e.g. 1 Kings 15:25-27, and to what would have happened to them had Jerusalem been taken by Rezin and the son of Remaliah (2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1-2), or by Assyria in the time of Sennacherib).
Analysis.
a And YHWH spoke by his servants the prophets, saying, “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 made Judah also to sin with his idols” (2 Kings 21:10-11).
b “Therefore thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle” (2 Kings 21:12).
c “And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down, and I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies” (2 Kings 21:13-14).
b “Because they have done what is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day” (2 Kings 21:15).
a Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing what was evil in the sight of YHWH (2 Kings 21:16).
Note that in ‘a' Manasseh, as well as doing his evil had ‘made Judah to sin', and the same was true in the parallel where he performed much evil and ‘made Judah to sin'. In ‘b' YHWH will bring great evil on Judah, and in the parallel it is because of the way in which the people have provoked Him to anger right from their beginning as a nation. Centrally in ‘c' His determined judgment on them is revealed.
‘And YHWH spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,'
The Chronicler tells us that during the reign of Manasseh many seers spoke to him in the Name of YHWH the God of Israel, their prophecies being recorded ‘among the acts of the kings of Israel' (2 Chronicles 33:18). These would presumably also have been available to the prophetic author of Kings. YHWH did not leave Himself without a witness.
“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 made Judah also to sin with his idols,”
Ahab had done ‘very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did whom YHWH cast out before the children of Israel' (1 Kings 21:26), but Manasseh is seen as being worse than Ahab. He had done wickedly above all that the Amorites who were before him did. (Note the contrast also with those who had done evil ‘above all (the kings) who were before them' (1Ki 16:25; 1 Kings 16:30; 1 Kings 16:33). Manasseh had done wickedness which exceeded even the wickedness of the Amorites, and the Amorites were seen by the time of Moses as the epitome of evil - Genesis 15:16). There could be no greater condemnation. And what was worse he had also made Judah to sin with his idols. He had led astray his people.
“Therefore thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.”
This description signifies elsewhere a terrible judgment. In 1 Samuel 3:11 the tingling of the ears would be at what happened to the house of Eli. Thus what was to happen to Jerusalem and Judah was to be so devastating that men's ears would tingle when they heard it.
“And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.”
For he would measure Jerusalem by the measuring line of sinful Samaria and by the plummet of the house of Ahab, and as 2 Kings 21:11 indicates by that measure they would come off worse (compare Isaiah 34:11, where however the idea is not quite the same. There the measurement was after destruction) For he would wipe it like a man wipes a dish and then turns it upside down. (An equivalent modern expression might be that ‘He would hang them out to dry'). The thought is of total and complete judgment. This did not necessarily indicate the same fate as Samaria. It is speaking of Samaria at the time of the house of Ahab as being a measure. Samaria and Ahab were to be the measure of their wickedness. It was because of their filthiness that YHWH would have to wipe them and turn them upside down. There is no emphasis at all on exile, although in the light of what had happened previously in Israel and Judah it must clearly have been seen as a possibility. It is the fact of the severe judgment that is important to the prophets, not its method. (It is, however, difficult to see how anyone speaking after the destruction of Jerusalem who had a tendency to misuse prophecy by altering it, could have failed to make more plain what he had in mind. It thus testifies to the early nature of this prophecy).
“And I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies,”
They would no longer be His chosen people but He would cast them off, and hand them over to their enemies, and the result would be that they would become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies. For ‘deliver them into the hands of spoilers who spoiled them' see Judges 2:14, where He also ‘sold them into the hands of their enemies'. This could therefore equally have described what happened to Israel in the Book of Judges.
It is significant that in all these prophetic descriptions there is no allusion to exile. While precedent would suggest it as a possibility, even a probability, it is nowhere indicated. The emphasis is on the totality of YHWH's judgment on them and His rejection of them, as in the days of the Judges. Exile was thus just one possibility. It should be noted that the prophetic author was careful not to alter the prophecies in line with future events.
“Because they have done what is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day.”
And all this would occur because they had done what was evil in His sight and had provoked Him to anger since the very day when they came out of Egypt, even to this present day. God's judgment did not come on His people simply because of the behaviour and attitude of their kings. It resulted from the fact that the people were equally provocatively sinful. It would seem clear from the expressions used in 2 Kings 21:14-15 that Judges 2:11-15 was very much in mind.
For ‘done what is evil in My sight' compare Numbers 32:13; Deuteronomy 4:25; Deuteronomy 31:29; Judges 2:11 and often; 1 Samuel 15:19; 2 Samuel 12:9; 1 Kings 11:6 ad often. For ‘provoking to anger' see 2 Kings 17:11; 2Ki 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6; Deuteronomy 4:25; Deuteronomy 9:18; Deuteronomy 31:29; Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 32:21; Jdg 2:12; 1 Kings 14:9; 1 Kings 14:15; and often.
‘Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing what was evil in the sight of YHWH.'
Along with Manasseh's idolatry, as so often happened, went a propensity for evil, for it resulted in the Law of YHWH being set aside. ‘Shed innocent blood very much' may be speaking only of judicial murder, although if so it was clearly carried out in large numbers, removing opponents, and especially those who sought to be faithful to YHWH (later tradition says that it included Isaiah), but it probably also included general persecution and the revealing of a total disregard for human life, something which once begun would happily be taken up by all so inclined. It would be seen by many as a convenient way of removing political or business rivals, appropriating other people's wealth, and obtaining vengeance for perceived slights. Jerusalem had become a blood-bath.
The picture is one of wholesale bloodshed, unlike anything seen before. And this was on top of his making Judah to sin, in doing what was evil in the sight of YHWH, both by idolatry, and also by them acting contrary to the covenant and the ten ‘words'. His evil propensities were thus being taken up by others. As far as the prophetic author was concerned this was what lay at the root of his reign, and it is salutary to realise that in so far as it affected Judah it was something which his late repentance could not wipe out. As with Ahab (1 Kings 21:27-29) his repentance simply delayed judgment. It was thus not considered important enough to mention here.