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, which means he was the longest-reigning king of Judah after the division of Israel during the reign of Rehoboam.
He didn’t start off well as the king, because he did evil in God’s eyes by getting involved in idolatry, witchcraft and child sacrifice, 2 Chronicles 33:1-10. Whilst he reigned Judah was subjected to Assyria, who eventually placed him in prison in Babylon. After repenting, he went back to Jerusalem to begin a campaign to get God’s people back on track with God, but that didn’t last long, 2 Chronicles 33:11-17.
He basically undone everything his father, Hezekiah had achieved to keep Judah right with God. He built altars in God’s temple, erected altars to Baal, made an Asherah pole, Jude 1:4, and worshipped the starry hosts, Acts 7:42-43.
He also sacrificed his own son through the fire, 2 Chronicles 33:6, tells us ‘he sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom.’ In other words, he sacrificed several of his children to Molek.
Manasseh totally disobeyed God and commands, and because he and the people wouldn’t listen to God or obey His ways, 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.
This is not good news for Manasseh and Judah, judgment is being announced here by God because of Manasseh’s sinful actions. God is going to bring such a disaster to Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears of it will ‘tingle’. 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’, 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 forsake the remnant, that is the Southern Kingdom of Judah because they didn’t repent, Luke 13:3, and because Manasseh had shed so much blood during his reign.
This probably isn’t just referring to the blood he shed when he sacrificed his sons, 2 Kings 21:6 / 2 Chronicles 33:6, 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, Hebrews 11:37.
It appears when Manasseh was in prison he didn’t really repent of everything he did, 2 Chronicles 3:11-13 / 2 Chronicles 33:18-20. He tried to correct the sin of his early reign, but it was too late, he had already led the people too far away from God.
Only Manasseh and Amon are recorded to have been buried in the garden of Uzza, 2 Kings 21:18, and 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.
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. Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah and he reigned for two years, 642 to 640 B.C.
Amon was certainly following in the footsteps of his father Manasseh and it appears there was some kind of conspiracy among Amon’s officials which led to him being assassinated.
The murderers put Josiah on the throne as king, 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 Chronicles 33:21-25. In other words, they wanted a change, they wanted someone who was young enough they could train to be king.
"Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."