Image of the grove, &c,— Image of Aschera, [Astarte] which he had made by the house, &c. Houbigant.
REFLECTIONS.—Like the seven years famine of Egypt, which made the former plenty forgotten, the wickedness of Manasseh blots out all the glorious work that his father had so piously accomplished.
1. Manasseh was young when he began his reign, and continued longest of any of the kings of Judah, reckoning the years of his captivity in Babylon. Whether he was immediately corrupted by those at court, who, amidst their pretended reformation, retained their love for the old abominations, and by flattery gained the ear of the unexperienced king; or whether only after he had children, Exodus 21:6 he apostatized, is uncertain. Note; It is very dangerous to come too young to the possession of honour and greatness; so many are in wait to flatter such persons to their ruin.
2. His wickedness was beyond that of all his predecessors. Not warned by Israel's punishment, he adopted all their sins with circumstances of peculiar aggravation; despising, or rather as if designing to cast reproach on his father's proceedings, he began with rebuilding the high places that Hezekiah had destroyed. Baal and Ashtoreth once more reared up their hateful heads, and the hosts of heaven were the objects of his worship, instead of that God who made them. To profane God's holy temple, he dared there erect his idol altars, filled the house and courts with these abominations, and there sacrificed to his gods. In the temple itself he placed the image of Ashtoreth, Exodus 21:7 in opposition and defiance to God, provoking him to cast them off for ever, whom, on their fidelity, he had promised ever to protect and preserve. Madly attached to his idols, he made his son to pass through the fire, in honour to these false deities; and, superstitious as impious, he trusted in charms, and consulted wizards, as if the devil was a better oracle than the God who spoke from between the cherubims. Seduced by their king's example, the people in general followed him, and Judah was filled with idolatry, worse than the very heathen nations around them. Note; (1.) They who have had a religious education, when they give themselves up to evil, usually grow of all others the most profligate. (2.) Irreligion and superstition are nearly allied. They who cast off all fear of God, are often seen to be the greatest slaves to the illusions of the devil. (3.) A bad example is mortally infectious, and especially in kings: how much will they have to answer in the day of God, who are chargeable not only with their own blood, but with the murder of thousands of souls, whom they have seduced and destroyed?