2 Kings 21:1-26 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Reigns of Manasseh and Amon. The fact that the reformation begun by Hezekiah was so thoroughly undone at his death, and that his son was able to reign undisturbed for fifty-five years, proves that his reforms were only superficial and could not have been popular. The thoroughly Deuteronomic tone of this chapter is very noticeable. The idolatry of Manasseh is specially condemned in Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:13; Deuteronomy 18:10 f. He is the only king of Judah who is compared to Ahab (2 Kings 21:3 and 2 Kings 21:13). According to 2 Chronicles 33:1-20, Manasseh repented when he was in captivity in Baby Ion, was restored to his kingdom, and on his return reformed Jerusalem and the Temple, very little being said of their purification by Josiah. The progress of the reforms in Judah, as described in Kings, is comparable to the swing of the pendulum during our Reformation. Hezekiah removed the high places and destroyed some of the idolatrous objects in the Temple. Manasseh and his son reverted to the older practices, and for seventy-five years nothing was done. Then came the drastic reformation under Josiah; but after his death, to judge from Jeremiah, things drifted into their ancient condition till the fall of the city. The kings of Assyria in Manasseh's reign were perhaps Sennacherib (705- 681), Esarhaddon (681- 668), and Assur-bani-pal (668- 626). Manasseh, in one case as king of the city of Judah, appears in Assyrian inscriptions by Esarhaddon (677 B.C.) and Assur-bani-pal (668 B.C.).

3. the host of heaven: the worship of the heavenly bodies is forbidden in Dt., but there are no allusions to it till we reach the times of the Assyrian invasions. It is (if we except Amos 5:26) first mentioned in connexion with Manasseh, and after his time it was the form of idolatry most prevalent in Judah. G. A. Smith (Jerusalem, vol. ii. pp. 181ff.) says that Jerusalem stands in a position peculiarly fitted for observing the rise of the heavenly bodies. The worship was conducted on roofs, where altars were placed, and in private houses. See Deuteronomy 4:19; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 44:17 ff. (worship of the queen of heaven), Zephaniah 1:5; Ezekiel 8:16 (worship of the sun). Esarhaddon formally established his own religion in Zidon, and possibly Manasseh became a worshipper of the host of heaven to please his master.

2 Kings 21:5. the two courts: this is supposed to be a post-exilic gloss, as there was but one court in the older Temple. But there was both an inner (1 Kings 6:36) and an outer court there, and G. A. Smith (Jerusalem, vol. ii. p. 181, note) does not consider the post-exilic theory necessary.

2 Kings 21:13. the line. plummet: cf. Amos 7:8 *, Isaiah 34:11 *, Lamentations 2:8. In all of these passages the metaphor is destruction. But it is hard to see why the line and plummet, which are used for construction, should have this meaning. Perhaps they are used as tests or standards, and here Jerusalem and Ahaz are to be submitted to the same crucial moral test and punishment as Samaria and the house of Ahab. (See HDB, Plummet.)

Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 21:1

2 Kings 21:1-26

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah.

2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

7 And he set a graven image of the grove 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 tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:

8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land 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.

9 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.

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

11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:

12 Therefore thus saith 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.

13 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 wipeth a dish, wipinga it, and turning it upside down.

14 And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;

15 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.

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.