1–10 (compare 2 Kings xxi. 1–16).
Manasseh’s Reign. His Apostasy.
¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. ²And 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.
1. in Jerusalem] The Chronicler omits here the name of Manasseh’s mother, Hephzi-bah.
³For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
3. the Baalim] i.e. the gods—of Canaan—Baalim being the plural of the word Baal (Lord, i.e. God). See the notes on xvii. 3, and 1 Chronicles viii. 33.
Asheroth] compare xiv. 3 (note).
the host of heaven] See the note on xviii. 18. Compare 2 Kings xvii. 16; Jeremiah viii. 2.
⁴And he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.
4. shall my name be for ever] Compare vii. 16.
⁵And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
5. the two courts] Compare iv. 9 (note).
⁶He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: and he practised augury, and used enchantments, and practised sorcery, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
6. He also made] In the Hebrew there is stress on the pronoun “He” (that wicked one!).
to pass through the fire] Compare xxviii. 3 (note).
in the valley of the son of Hinnom] Compare Jeremiah vii. 31, 32.
practised augury] The precise meaning of the Hebrew word (‘ōnēn) is quite uncertain, so that we cannot be sure what form of divination is meant. “Augury” among the Romans consisted chiefly in observing birds and interpreting the observations made, but auguries were also taken from other natural phenomena.
practised sorcery] The Hebrew word (kishshēph) probably means “to make a magic brew with shredded herbs.”
with them that had familiar spirits] The Hebrew word (ōb) probably means a necromancer who used ventriloquism in the practice of his art. The witch of Endor (1 Samuel xxviii.) was such a person. LXX. here has [ἐποίησεν] ἐνγαστριμύθους, i.e. “he appointed ventriloquists.”
⁷And he set the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: ⁸neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers; if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.
7. the graven image of the idol] In 2 Kings xxi. 7, Revised Version “the graven image of Asherah.” For Asherah compare xv. 16 (note).
⁹And Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, so that they did evil more than did the nations, whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
9. And Manasseh made Judah, etc.] Compare Jeremiah xv. 4, where the captivity itself is referred back for its cause to the evil deeds of Manasseh.
¹⁰And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they gave no heed.
10. the Lord spake] i.e. by prophets; compare 2 Kings xxi. 10–15.
11–13 (not in 2 Kings).
The Punishment of Manasseh, and his
Repentance.
It has been urged that the tradition of Manasseh’s captivity in Babylon, his restoration to the throne of Judah, and his attempt at reformation—events related only by the Chronicler—ought not to be regarded as historically true, but are simply inventions put forward as a possible explanation of the (to the Chronicler) strange fact that the wicked king Manasseh reigned for no less than fifty and five years. The objections to the tradition are not slight—in view of the general character of the Chronicler’s work. In particular, the story of Manasseh’s penitence might easily be an assumption to justify the fact of his long reign, and it is very difficult to correlate it with Jeremiah xv. 4, where the captivity of the nation is expressly declared to be due to Manasseh’s wickedness. The evidence is not decisive, however; and a brief and perhaps half-hearted repentance towards the close of his reign might well be forgotten or deemed negligible. The evidence against the historicity of the tradition of the captivity of Manasseh is much less strong, being chiefly the silence of Kings. The facts mentioned in the following note indicate that there is nothing inherently improbable in the tradition, and it is therefore legitimate to accept it as very possibly correct, although we are not yet able to confirm it from the Assyrian records.
¹¹Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh in chains¹, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. ¹²And when he was in distress, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
11. Assyria] Manasseh is mentioned in an Assyrian list of kings tributary to Esar-haddon and Asshur-bani-pal, but no Assyrian inscription at present known speaks of his captivity. We have, however, monumental evidence that there was a great insurrection against Asshur-bani-pal, the grandson of Sennacherib, in which Western Asia (and perhaps Manasseh) was involved. The subsequent restoration of Manasseh to his kingdom is not incredible, for Neco I of Egypt was first put in fetters and afterwards sent back to Egypt. (Driver in Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology, pp. 114–116.)
in chains] Rather, with hook (as margin); compare 2 Kings xix. 28 (= Isaiah xxxvii. 29). Assyrian kings sometimes thrust a hook or ring into the nostrils of their captives and so led them about. The practice is illustrated on many Assyrian reliefs in the British Museum (see Handcock, Latest Light on Bible Lands, p. 159).
to Babylon] Nineveh, not Babylon, was the capital of Assyria, but as Asshur-bani-pal at times resided in Babylon, there is nothing improbable in any important prisoner of his being carried thither.
¹³And he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.
13. he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him] It is very pleasing to notice that, for all the rigidity of the Chronicler’s theology, he allows that even an heinous sinner may repent, and that, if he does so, he will meet with Divine acceptance.
14–17 (not in 2 Kings).
The Later Deeds of Manasseh.
¹⁴Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate; and he compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height: and he put valiant captains¹ in all the fenced cities of Judah.
14. an outer wall ... fish gate] “This can only mean that outside the existing rampart of the citadel, on the ridge above the present Virgin’s Spring [i.e. St Mary’s Well, see note, xxxii. 3], Manasseh constructed another line of fortification which he carried northwards past the Temple Mount, and round its northern slope,” G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, 1. 208. The fish-gate was in the northern wall, probably corresponding to the modern Damascus Gate (Jerusalem 1. 202).
Ophel] compare xxvii. 3 (note).
¹⁵And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
15. he took away the strange gods] Compare verse 7.
¹⁶And he built up¹ the altar of the Lord, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.
16. he built up] or he rebuilt, compare xi. 5 (note).
peace offerings] compare 1 Chronicles xvi. 1 (note).
commanded Judah] compare verse 9; 2 Kings xxi. 11.
¹⁷Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, but only unto the Lord their God.
17. but only, etc.] See note on xxxii. 12.
18–20 (compare 2 Kings xxi. 17, 18).
The Epilogue to Manasseh’s Reign.
¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.
18. his prayer] It was probably upon the ground of this remark that the so-called Prayer of Manasses, which in the English editions of the Apocrypha occurs just before 1 Maccabees, was composed. The “prayer” referred to by the Chronicler is quite certainly not to be associated even remotely with this apocryphal work, which by some is thought to have been written originally in Greek, though it has also been regarded as a Greek translation from some Hebrew midrashic source. Its date is uncertain. It is given in a collection of hymns appended to the Psalter in the Alexandrine MS. (A) of the LXX. (Swete’s edition vol. III. p. 824), and is also found in the Latin Vulgate, though the translation is not by Jerome. See the edition by Ryle in Charles’ Apocrypha, vol. 1.
the acts of the kings of Israel] See Introduction § 5, p. xxxii. Here, since canonical Kings contains no mention whatever of Manasseh’s prayer or the words of the seers to him, we see very plainly that this source to which the Chronicler so often refers cannot be identical with the canonical books of Kings.
¹⁹His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai¹.
19. in the history of Hozai] Render, in the history of the seers; compare margin and LXX., slightly emending the Hebrew text. To take the Hebrew word (ḥōzai) as a proper name is unsuitable, since the same word occurs as a common noun (“seers”) in the preceding verse.
²⁰So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
20. in his own house] i.e. as in 2 Kings “in the garden of his own house.”
21–25 (= 2 Kings xxi. 19–26).
Amon’s short Reign. Josiah succeeds
him.
²¹Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. ²²And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as did Manasseh his father: and Amon sacrificed unto all the graven images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.
21. in Jerusalem] The Chronicler omits here the name of Amon’s mother; compare verse 1.
²³And he humbled not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed¹ more and more. ²⁴And his servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.
23. And he humbled not himself] This verse is not in Kings.
trespassed] Render, became guilty (so margin); compare xix. 10, xxiv. 18, xxviii. 10, 13.
²⁵But 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. slew] Render, smote. The Hebrew word suggests that there was a conflict between the people and the conspirators.