Hezekiah named his son Manasseh, possibly because God helped him forget his illness. The name Manasseh means ‘forget’, Genesis 41:51. He became king when he was only twelve years old and reigned for fifty-five years, 2 Chronicles 33:1 / 2 Kings 21:1, which means he was the longest-reigning king of Judah after the division of Israel during the reign of Rehoboam.
He reigned together with his father, Hezekiah, from about 696 to 687 B.C. His mother’s name was Hephzibah, 2 Kings 21:1 / Isaiah 62:4.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘He was born about three years after his father’s miraculous cure; he was carried captive to Babylon, repented, was restored to his kingdom, put down idolatry, and died at the age of sixty-seven years, 2 Chronicles 33:1-20.’
He didn’t start off well as the king, because he did evil in God’s eyes, by getting involved in detestable practices of the nations, 2 Chronicles 33:2 / 2 Kings 21:2. He erected altars to Baal, made an Asherah pole, 2 Chronicles 33:3 / 2 Kings 21:3 / 2 Kings 17:10 / 2 Kings 21:7 / Jude 1:4.
Worshipped the starry hosts, 2 Chronicles 33:3 / 2 Kings 21:3 / Jeremiah 19:13 / Acts 7:42-43. He built altars in God’s temple, 2 Chronicles 33:4 / 2 Kings 21:4. He basically undone everything his father, Hezekiah had achieved to keep Judah right with God.
In the two courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts, 2 Chronicles 33:6 / 2 Kings 21:5. He also sacrificed his own son through the fire, 2 Chronicles 33:6 / 2 Kings 21:6, in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom.’
In other words, he sacrificed several of his children to Molek, 2 Chronicles 33:3-6. He was involved in idolatry, witchcraft, and child sacrifice, 2 Chronicles 33:6 / 2 Kings 21:6. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger, 2 Kings 21:6.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Manasseh during his minority naturally fell under the influence of the chief Jewish nobles, with whom the pure religion of Yahweh was always unpopular, 2 Chronicles 24:17-18 / Jeremiah 8:1-2. They seem to have persuaded him, not only to undo Hezekiah’s work, but to proceed to lengths in polytheism, magic, and idolatry, unknown before. The sins of Manasseh’s reign appear to have been those which filled up the measure of Judah’s iniquity, and brought down the final sentence of doom on the last remnant of the chosen people, 2 Kings 23:26 / Jeremiah 15:4.’
He took the image, that is, the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in God’s temple, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon,’ In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever, 2 Chronicles 33:7 / 2 Kings 21:7.
Manasseh totally disobeyed God and commands, and because he and the people wouldn’t listen to God or obey His ways, 2 Kings 21:8 / 2 Chronicles 33:10, Manasseh totally took the people away from God to such an extent that Judah was worse that than the nations that God had destroyed before, 2 Chronicles 33:9 / 2 Kings 21:9 / Genesis 15:16.
Manasseh totally disobeyed God and commands because he and the people wouldn’t listen to God or obey His ways, 2 Chronicles 33:10.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following, concerning 2 Kings 21:10.
‘The prophets were Hosea, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Isaiah. These five following verses contain the sum of what these prophets spoke.’
God says Manasseh has committed these detestable sins and he has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols, 2 Kings 21:10-11. This is not good news for Manasseh and Judah, judgment is being announced here by God because of Manasseh’s sinful actions, 2 Kings 21:12.
God is going to bring such a disaster to Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears of it will ‘tingle’, 2 Kings 21:12. The tingle will be like a sharp discordant note that pains one’s ears, tingling ears are a sign that an especially severe judgment was coming, 1 Samuel 3:11 / Jeremiah 19:3.
God is going to stretch out over Jerusalem ‘the measuring line’, 2 Kings 21:13. In other words, when measured with God’s standard, that is, His Word, Jerusalem, just like Samaria and the house of Ahab will be seen to be crooked.
God is going to wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down, 2 Kings 21:13. God is going to forsake the remnant, 2 Kings 21:14-15, that is, the Southern Kingdom of Judah because they didn’t repent, Luke 13:3.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘One part, the ten tribes, was already forsaken, and carried into captivity, the remnant, the tribe of Judah, was now about to be forsaken.’
God was going to forsake the remnant because Manasseh had shed so much blood during his reign, 2 Kings 21:16. This probably isn’t just referring to the blood he shed when he sacrificed his sons, 2 Chronicles 33:6 / 2 Kings 21:6, it’s also probably referring to all the prophets that God sent to Judah at this time, who were killed by him, 2 Kings 21:10 / Hebrews 11:32.
According to Jewish legend, it was during this time that the prophet Isaiah was executed by Manasseh by being sawn in two, Isaiah 57:1-4 / Jeremiah 2:30 / Hebrews 11:37.
Whilst he reigned Judah was subjected to Assyria, 2 Chronicles 33:10. who eventually placed him in prison in Babylon. He had a hook put through his nose and he was bound with bronze shackles, 2 Chronicles 33:11 / 2 Kings 25:7.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In 2 Chronicles 33:11, we read that the Assyrians took Manasseh, bound him with fetters, and took him to Babylon that there he repented, sought God, and was, we are not told how, restored to his kingdom, that he fortified the city of David, destroyed idolatry, restored the worship of the true God, and died in peace.’
It appears the only thing that would get him back on track with God was to spend some time in captivity, 2 Chronicles 33:12. After praying to God, humbling himself and repenting of his sinfulness, he went back to Jerusalem to begin a campaign to get God’s people back on track with God, 2 Chronicles 33:13.
Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God, 2 Chronicles 33:13, but that didn’t last long. The good news in all of this was the Israelites never again got involved in worshipping false gods.
Manasseh now begins to rebuild the outer wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah 3:15, but makes it higher, 2 Chronicles 33:14. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah, 2 Chronicles 33:14.
He gets rid of all the foreign gods and removed all the images and altars and threw them outside the city, 2 Chronicles 33:15. After restoring the altar of the LORD, they offered fellowship and thanks offering sacrifices on the altar and encouraging the people to serve God, the God of Israel, 2 Chronicles 33:16.
Notice, however, that he didn’t get rid of the high places, and so, the people continued to sacrifice in those high places, but only to God, 2 Chronicles 33:17. It appears that Manasseh could only undo some of the evil practices that he had done before his repentance.
The other events of Manasseh’s reign, and all he did, including the sin he committed, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah, 2 Kings 21:17. Everything Manasseh had done, his prayer and the words the seer spoke to him, 2 Kings 21:11-15, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel, 2 Chronicles 33:18-19.
Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace, 2 Chronicles 33:20. However, 2 Kings 21:18, tells us he was buried in the garden of Uzza. This simply means that he was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza.
Only Manasseh and Amon are recorded to have been buried in the garden of Uzza, 2 Kings 21:18 / 2 Kings 21:26, because of their awful sins. We can safely know that this place was a disgraceful location, it wasn’t a place where faithful royals were buried.
Manasseh’s son Amon now becomes king, 2 Chronicles 33:20 / 2 Kings 21:18. It’s important to note that Manasseh’s son was named Amon. This is the name of the Egyptian god, who was the god of the wind and certain powers of generation, Nahum 3:8.
Despite his repentance, Manasseh will go down in history and be remembered for his sin. Many commentators suggest that Manasseh, is more responsible for bringing the kingdom of Judah to an end, than any other person, 2 Kings 23:26 / 2 Kings 24:3 / Jeremiah 15:4.
Manasseh’s son was named Amon, this is the name of the Egyptian god, who was the god of the wind and certain powers of generation, Nahum 3:8. Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah and he reigned for two years, 642 to 640 B.C. 2 Chronicles 33:21 / 2 Kings 21:19.
His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz and she was from Jotbah, 2 Kings 21:19. Amon was certainly following in the footsteps of his father Manasseh, 2 Chronicles 33:22 / 2 Kings 21:20-22. However, unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself before God and Amon increased his guilt, 2 Chronicles 33:23.
It appears there was some kind of conspiracy among Amon’s officials which led to him being assassinated, 2 Chronicles 33:24-25 / 2 Kings 21:23-24.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘At Manasseh’s death, the idolatrous party, held in some check during his later years, 2 Chronicles 33:15-17, recovered the entire direction of affairs, and obtained authority from Amon to make once more all the changes which Manasseh had made in the early part of his reign. Hence, we find the state of things at Josiah’s accession, 2 Kings 23:4-14 / Zephaniah 1:4-12 / Zephaniah 3:1-7, the exact counterpart of that which had existed under Manasseh.’
The murderers put Josiah on the throne as king, 2 Kings 21:24 / 2 Chronicles 33:25. However, since Josiah was only eight years old, it appears that some of Amon’s officials, or priests of the temple, were irritated with the apostasy that was led by Manasseh and Amon, 2 Kings 21:19-26. In other words, they wanted a change, they wanted someone who was young enough they could train to be king.
Ellison, in his commentary, says the following.
‘There are only minor variations here from the parallel in 2 Kings. No motivation for the assassination is given. Amon may have been the vicious son of a bad father, or it may have been out of disgust for his following a discredited policy. Amon was the unhappy product of his father’s pagan life, not of his pious death.’
The other events of Amon’s reign, and what he did, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah, 2 Kings 21:25. He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, 2 Kings 21:18, and Josiah his son succeeded him as king, 2 Chronicles 33:25 / 2 Kings 21:26.