2
ND
KINGS
Week 32, Chapter 21
Open your Bibles to 2
nd
Kings Chapter 21. We’ll be doing quite a bit of reading and
referencing today from this chapter as well as it’s parallel in 2
nd
Chronicles 33.
Manasseh is the current King of Judah, having replaced his deceased father the former King of
Judah, Hizkiyahu (Hezekiah). Manasseh is hands down the most wicked king yet to rule the
southern kingdom. Although we’re told that he became king at the tender age of 12 years old,
in fact he co-ruled with his father Hezekiah for a full decade until he became the sole ruler of
Judah at 22 years of age when Hezekiah died.
The first half of 2
nd
Kings 21 spells out a long list of terrible sins committed by Manasseh. His
behavior and his decisions were appalling as he essentially set about to undo every good thing
his father had done. We briefly touched on this last time, by saying that part of the reason for
this intentional reversal of policy by Manasseh was due to the morally bankrupt nature of
Judah’s society at that time. Hezekiah essentially forced his reforms upon his people. And
even though it was surely the right thing to do, one can’t force a Godly brand of morality on
corrupt and unwilling hearts and expect any more than an illusion of true change. What is
required is for people to have a change of nature, not merely a change of rules. Hezekiah
could enforce rules, but he couldn’t enforce a change in his peoples’ natures. So in harmony
with the tone of this chapter, it seems that all Manasseh did was to enact policies that pleased
the bulk of his people because it released them from Hezekiah’s righteous regulations that
most of them didn’t want to be encumbered with.
This matter is discussed from a slightly different perspective in the New Testament in the Book
of Galatians.
Gal 5:19-23 CJB

19
And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual
immorality, impurity and indecency;
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20
involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous
and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue
21
and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have
warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of
God!
22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness,
23
humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.

Notice how neatly those characteristics listed as the fruits of the old nature line up with the
listing of the immoral policies that Manasseh re-introduced to the people of Judah. Thus
despite Melech Hizkiyahu’s (King Hezekiah’s) whole-hearted attempt to pull the people of
Judah away from their back-slidden path, and on the surface it sort of appeared as if it was
working, their hearts and minds stayed firmly rooted to their old nature. So when Manasseh
took the throne he merely gave the people what they wanted. Certainly he had his opponents
who indeed had been profoundly affected by King Hezekiah’s righteous reign and so
submitted to a holy voice, and that is what is meant by 2
nd
Kings 21:16:
2Kings 21:16 CJB

16
Moreover, M'nasheh shed so much innocent blood that he flooded Yerushalayim from
one end to the other- this in addition to his sin through which he caused Y'hudah to sin
by doing what is evil from ADONAI's perspective.
As proof that the deteriorated moral state of the average Judahite cannot be laid exclusively at
King Manasseh’s feet, and that the Lord held the common citizens accountable for their
choices and their inner thoughts are the words of verses 8 and 9.
2Kings 21:8-9 CJB

8
Also I will not have the feet of Isra'el wander any longer out of the land which I gave
their ancestors- if only they will take heed to obey every order I have given them and
live in accordance with all the Torah that my servant Moshe ordered them to obey."
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But they did not take heed; and M'nasheh misled them into doing even worse things
than the nations ADONAI had destroyed ahead of the people of Isra'el.

The key word is “they”; “they” did not take heed, meaning the people themselves. And
because the people didn’t shema to Yehoveh (didn’t listen and obey), then Yehoveh allowed
Manasseh to mislead them to doing even worse things, which in turn cemented the coming
divine judgment against them that was to be their exile to Babylon. I have often taught that a
great and terrifying God-principle is that God will usually give His people the leaders they
deserve. Sometimes, in His boundless mercy, He will give His wandering people a strong and
righteous leader that works tirelessly to lead his nation back from the brink of God’s judgment.
And I think that one of the most profound lessons that we can take from King Hezekiah’s
reign, and now Manasseh’s, is that even the best of leaders is incapable of changing the
hearts and souls of the individuals who form his nation. And even the worst of leaders cannot
change the hearts and souls of the righteous to become wicked, unless the people, individual
by individual, acquiesce to it.
So while leaders bear great responsibility in God’s eyes for the corporate sins of their
congregation (or nation), the congregation (or nation) is held accountable for their individual
moral choices and behavior. Thus the Torah (and the entire Bible) shows us that while even
the righteous will be affected when God judges on a national or corporate level, that the
righteous will not be judged along with the wicked on an individual level.
Let’s re-read part of 2
nd
Kings 21.
RE-READ 2
ND
KINGS 21:10 – end
The Scriptures say that God spoke this oracle that is contained in verses 11-15 in His typical
way, through His prophets. Yet, there are no named prophets. I had previously mentioned that
the only prophets whose records are kept in the Bible and who seem to have lived and
prophesied during Manasseh’s time are Isaiah and then possibly Nahum. The tradition is that
Manasseh was so angered by Isaiah’s prophecies of condemnation against him that the King
had him executed. That doesn’t mean that other Prophets weren’t alive in Manasseh’s time,
and that they didn’t comment later on and perhaps indirectly about Manasseh (those like
Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Joel). But we get no direct confirmation of any specific prophet
dealing with Manasseh. Rather we get this general comment about the Lord speaking through
His prophets and it seems to be that just as in earlier times there were many lesser prophets
living in Judah who the Lord used to carry His message to the people, and directly or indirectly
to the King, that is the sense of it here. The venerated Jewish commentator Rashi says that the
reason no prophet’s name is scripturally attached to Manasseh is so as not to give honor to
this most evil king. Perhaps, but that is only his personal speculation and we have the Biblical
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record of other prophets called out by name for chastising evil Hebrew kings so I don’t
necessarily agree with Rashi on that point.
Verse 11 begins with an explanation by the Lord about why He is going to judge Judah as He
is. Take note: we only occasionally get a specific reason in the Bible as to why God did what
He did, and so we need to pay close attention when we run across it. Notice that since the
judgment is going to be a national judgment (as opposed to individual judgments) then the
leader of the nation is being held responsible. The Lord says that because King Manasseh did
disgusting things (we got the list of the disgusting things earlier in this chapter), and that these
disgusting things were even worse than the disgusting things that the heathen Amorites did
(God ejected the Amorites from Canaan and ordered them destroyed) that He is going to bring
a divine catastrophe upon Judah and great suffering upon Yerushalayim. The Hebrew word
being translated in our CJB as “disgusting” is to’evah and elsewhere in the English Bible the
word is translated as “abomination”. So from God’s perspective sins that are to’evah
(abominations) are the worst of the worst and in almost all cases are sins of humanity directed
at God, rather than sins of humanity directed at other humans. And by the way, it really
doesn’t matter if what God calls abominable, many human societies now call good or just an
amoral issue of personal choice. That we have made civil laws and national moral choices that
take what God says is evil in His sight and declared it as good, or vice versa, changes nothing.
Frankly, that is precisely the nature of what Manasseh did in His new governmental policies
that overturned his father’s Godly governmental policies.
I’ll mince no words; by our contemporary federal government sanctioning abortion,
championing gay marriage of adults and gay adoption of young children, and actively
prohibiting any mention of God or Christ from our public schools, government assemblies, and
our courts, and our current President declaring that under his watch we will be a secular
nation, and our previous President declaring that Allah and Yehoveh are the same god, we
have put ourselves on a collision course with the Lord. That the majority of voters in our nation
elect political leaders who openly declare that they embrace these terrible things is equivalent
to the people of Judah who eagerly embraced Manasseh’s ungodly policies. That a substantial
segment of the modern church stands behind these to’evah governmental polices (or at least
looks the other way) is equivalent to the corrupt Priesthood of Judah and Israel supporting their
kings’ abhorrent edicts. And please notice that the Priesthood of Israel has gone completely
dormant for almost 2000 years as a result of their sinful choices.
Because the Lord is of course dealing with Judah in this narrative of 2
nd
Kings 21 (Israel, the
northern kingdom, is long gone), He now compares their spiritual state with that of exiled
Israel. He says that He will use the same standard for judging Judah and their capital
Jerusalem as He did for Israel and their capital Samaria. Using the metaphors of a level that
assures something is straight on a horizontal plane and a plumb-line that assures something is
straight on a vertical plane, God says that Judah is crooked beyond repair and so using those
measurements God calculates that Judah must be destroyed.
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I also love the use of the plate wiped clean and turned upside down to demonstrate God’s
intended actions upon Jerusalem. The picture is of first an action of abandonment, but then
also of a preparation for future re-acceptance. First the plate is wiped completely clean of
every contaminated thing that was formerly laid upon it, all refuse and uncleanness is
removed, and then the plate is turned upside down to keep it clean and ready for use when its
owner deems it is time to fill it once again. Notice that the plate itself is not annihilated or
discarded; it is cleansed and sort of put into state of storage. Later, after Jerusalem is emptied
of its uncleanness and corruption, and those unclean and corrupt things (the people) are sent
away to Babylon, God will determine when they have been sufficiently chastised and cleansed
of their sinful ways. Then the clean plate that is Jerusalem will be turned back over by the Lord,
ready to be filled with kosher (clean) food (which are the cleansed people and the purified
Priesthood). So here is a message that while Judah will be destroyed, the damage sustained in
Jerusalem is actually for the purpose of purification and it will only go unused for a time. And of
course, that is exactly what happened.
Back in verse 11, God blamed Manasseh’s sins for the coming national judgment. Now in the
concluding verses of God’s judgment oracle, verses 14 and 15, He says that the people have
also angered and provoked him since the moment He led them out of Egypt. And because
they (the people) have also done evil, they will have their possessions plundered by the
enemy, and they will become as prey to those same enemies that up to now God has
protected them against.
The final indictment against Manasseh is that he killed many innocent people, no doubt those
who railed against his wicked policies. Then chapter 21 says he died and was buried with his
son Amon taking his place as king.
The writer/editor of 2
nd
Kings in some ways does us a disservice because there is another
important side to this story of Manasseh’s reign that we’re not told about. However it is told
in 2
nd
Chronicles 33. Let’s turn there now where we’ll discover it.
READ 2
ND
CHRONICLES 33 all
The first 9 verses of the chapter offer nothing new than we’ve already read in 2
nd
Kings 21.
However beginning with verse 10, some important details emerge. It begins with saying that
the Lord spoke to BOTH Manasseh and to the people. In other words, it confirms that the
prophets carried God’s warning both to the King of Judah and to the common citizens of
Judah; thus not the royal court, the elders, nor the priesthood were commissioned to take
God’s oracle of warning that had been delivered to the King and bring it also to the people.
Rather the people received it directly from the prophets; but neither the king nor the common
folks would pay any attention to God’s message of warning to them.
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Many years later, the Prophet Jeremiah would speak of it in retrospect in this way:
CJB
Jeremiah 44:1 - 6
This word came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people from Y'hudah living in the land
of Egypt- in Migdol, Tachpanches, Nof and the land of Patros:
2
"Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'You have seen all the disaster
I inflicted on Yerushalayim and all the cities of Y'hudah; there they are today, ruined,
with no one living in them.
3
It came about because of the wicked things they did to make me angry- sacrificing to
and serving other gods, whom they did not know, neither they, nor you nor your
ancestors.
4
I had sent you all my servants the prophets, sent them frequently, with the message,
"Don't do this horrible thing which I hate!"
5
But they neither listened nor obeyed, so as to turn from their wickedness and stop
offering to other gods.
6
Hence my fury and anger were poured out and ignited in the cities of Y'hudah and the
streets of Yerushalayim; so that they became waste and desolate, as they are today.'
So as a result the Lord did as He so regularly does, He used an enemy of Israel as His means
of punishing His own chosen people. So we are told that Ashur’s army (remember, Ashur is
the god of Assyria) was used to take King Manasseh off to Babylon in chains. Until very
recently the standard scholarly take was that this verse was suspicious because the capital of
Assyria was Ninevah, not Babylon. It made no sense that King Manasseh would be taken to
Babylon instead of to the Assyrian capital. However it is now known that the latest King of
Assyria, Ashurbanipal, took up residence in Babylon for several years after re-conquering it yet
again. It seems that Babylon was a difficult kingdom to hold onto, and every few years Babylon
would rebel and regain its independence from Assyria for a few years. So the King of Assyria
stayed there to help keep control, so valuable was the possession of Babylon that it was
viewed as a strategic asset. So indeed Manasseh was taken to King Ashurbanipal in Babylon.
But then something astonishing happened. Verse 12 says that his unexpected capture and
imprisonment shook Manasseh to his core, and he realized that it was Yehoveh’s doing that
his kingdom was attacked and that he was hauled off in chains to Babylon. Manasseh
sincerely humbled himself before Yehoveh (meaning he admitted his wrong and accepted his
accountability for his sins). In response to his sincere repentance and change of heart, the
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Lord had mercy upon him and he returned to Jerusalem and resumed his office as a far better
King of Judah.
Further, as a changed king, he not only began building fortifications and repairing war damage,
he also went about removing all the idols he had years ago ordered installed, tore down the
pagan altars he had built in the Temple courtyards, and he also repaired and cleansed the
Altar of Burnt Offering from the abominable sacrifices to other gods that he had formerly
ordered to occur there. He even went so far as to command his people (that is, like his father
Hezekiah he used force) to allow only worship of Yehoveh within Judah.
What recent archeological discoveries tell us is that Ashurbanipal was in Babylon in precisely
648 B.C., and it was in that same year that Manasseh was brought to him. But what exactly
was the reason for Manasseh’s imprisonment in the first place, and why did Ashurbanipal let
him go? It turns out that several other kings in the west were also arrested by Ashurbanipal
and brought to him in Babylon. All, including Manasseh, were accused of treason. Why
treason? Because they all had some sort of vassal arrangement with Assyria that had kept
them in power and Assyria from conquering them. Thus after Ashurbanipal demonstrated his
power and control over them by going to their own homelands, damaging their kingdoms and
capturing the kings and bringing them to him in Babylon, they better understood their
precarious place. Assyria was their master, like it or not, and they were vassals, like it or not,
and Ashurbanipal would brook no disobedience nor lack of proper allegiance. Manasseh got
the message and left Babylon to go home as a trusted vassal and ally of Assyria. The build-up
of fortifications all over Judah that we read about in 2
nd
Chronicles 33:14 were NOT to protect
Judah from Assyria; rather they were to help protect Assyrian interests IN Judah from other
invaders (Egypt being a particularly troublesome one).
Verse 18 takes us one step further in regards to Manasseh’s changed stance towards the God
of Israel, but even more importantly, God’s changed perspective of Manasseh’s spiritual
condition before Him. There it says that seers (chozeh in Hebrew) spoke to Manasseh in the
name of Yehoveh God of Israel. So the implication is that now, for the 1
st
time, Manasseh was
receiving instruction and direction from the Lord. And yet, the use of the word chozeh instead
of the standard word for prophet (navi) hints that perhaps the information given to Manasseh in
God’s name was not of the same level of inspiration or intimacy as would have come from
God’s prophets. But, there is not enough information to know for sure. What we can know
though, is that Manasseh made an enormous turn towards good (and not just in outward
behavior), and God commended him for it. Even so, Manasseh was now a puppet governor for
Assyria with little choice but to do their bidding. He was caught in a snare as now being a
righteous king but having to compromise with the superior power of heathen Assyria; and this
was caused mostly by his previous sins.
So to kind of bring an end to the story of Manasseh, we see that he ruled as a thoroughly
wicked king (in the fact the worst king Judah had ever known) for the first 49 of his 55 years of
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reigning over Judah. During all that time he did not know or follow the God of Israel, and the
God of Israel didn’t lead Manasseh or communicate with him in any significant way that we’re
aware of. But, as a result of a great tragedy in his life and the sincere repentance that followed,
Manasseh established a relationship with the Lord and lived out the final 6 years of his life in a
far better spiritual state, and as a generally good king.
What hope that ought to bring for everyone, especially those of us who are older. Many people
have lived their entire adult lives in opposition to the Lord, or in rebellion against Him, and even
in denial of His existence. Some have done the most heinous and immoral things imaginable;
or have adhered to the most carnal and foolish of doctrines. Perhaps some have made the
most tragic mistakes, treated our families terribly, and even intentionally done great harm to
others. And yet, there remains the real possibility that if a person will humble themselves
before God, admit their sin, accept the salvation and lordship of Yeshua and begin a new life of
faithfulness towards the God of Israel they can have divine forgiveness and die in peace and
harmony with God, and look forward to an eternity with the Lord.
But despite the forgiveness and 2
nd
chance that Manasseh received, he had done irreparable
damage to his nation and to his people. He had advanced Judah yet another step towards the
day that the Lord would turn them over to a foreign power and have them removed from their
inheritance, the Promised Land. So the other side of hope for salvation and a renewed spiritual
life even late in our carnal lives, is that the damage that we did from an earthly perspective
cannot always be undone. And perhaps our personal circumstances won’t be changed from
something unpleasant to something happier, and our guilt for the pain we caused others might
even intensify because now we realize and acknowledge it. Such is the awful nature of sin that
forgiveness in heaven doesn’t wipe clean our present earthly slate or repair the lives of others
that our sin may have harmed. But it does give us new spiritual life with the Father, and it can
mean a new and meaningful and fruitful earthly life from here forward in the midst of our
circumstances, where such a possibility never before existed for us. And I have personally
witnessed this exact thing many times.
Back to 2
nd
Kings 21.
In verse 17 we are not to confuse our current 2 Books of Chronicles with the notation from the
writer/editor of the Book of 2
nd
Kings that there are further details about Manasseh contained in
another ancient work called the chronicles (or annals) of the Kings of Judah. The works that
the writer/editor of 2
nd
Kings is speaking about are royal archives that have never been found.
Next we’re told that Manasseh was buried in the garden of his palace, a place that at the time
of the writing of 2
nd
Kings was called the Garden of Uzza. That in no way means it was called
by that name in Manasseh’s day. Why was he buried in a garden plot and not in the holy
sepulchers of many of the other descendants of David? There are two reasonable explanations
for this, although neither can be verified. The first is that he was too ashamed for his past
deeds to be interred in the same burial vaults as his ancestor King David. The second (which I
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think is the much more probable) is that the elders of Judah refused to let him be buried
alongside the better kings of Judah. His past actions had been just too much, and the negative
effects were long lasting.
In fact, scholars are fairly confident that a term that is regularly used in Kings and Chronicles in
this approximate time in Judah was am eretz, which translates as “people of the land”. Until
fairly recently it was believed that this was just a general term for the inhabitants of Judah.
However it now appears (and I concur entirely) that it came to be used as a label for a certain
political and religious faction within Judah that was determined to restore a proper
interpretation of the Torah and its requirements to the land, the Temple, and the throne. This
faction involved common citizens, members of the government, elders, even members of the
priesthood. Calling it a movement might even be a better way to describe it, much as with the
modern day Hebrew Roots movement, which is not denominationally driven but rather cuts
across most Christian denominations and socioeconomic groups all around the world.
Manasseh’s son Amon took his place and he behaved as Manasseh had in his first 49 years
on the throne. He became king at 22 years old, the same age as his father when Manasseh
finally had the throne all to himself. His was a short and infamous reign of only 2 years.
It seems that every wicked king wants to outdo his predecessor. So Amon outdid his father.
Not only are we informed that he gave himself totally over to false gods, and reinstalled idols in
the Temple Courtyards, and completely abandoned Yehoveh, but there is evidence that he put
one of the idols inside the sanctuary building, perhaps in the Holy of Holies.
It is interesting that it was his servants (his royal court) that soon killed Amon. In a kind of like-
for-like retribution, just as Amon had betrayed Yehoveh, Amon’s servants betrayed their King.
And in what can only be seen as proportional justice, we’re told that the people of the land
(the am eretz) then killed the conspirators who killed Amon. While their reasoning for this is not
stated, I think I can reasonably speculate that because Amon was a fully legitimate royal
descendant of David, and had succeeded to the throne legally and customarily, that his
behavior was secondary to the fact that he was an authorized member of the Davidic Dynasty
and so no one had the right to remove him from the throne, let alone assassinate him.
The final notice of Amon is that he was buried in the same place as his father: the Garden of
Uzza, and not in the royal burial caves. So even the am eretz who avenged his death
recognized that a man of such evil character didn’t belong buried with the righteous bones of
his ancestors.
2
nd
Kings 21 ends with the notice that Amon’s son Josiah reined in his place. We’ll take up
chapter 22 and the subject of the boy-King Josiah next time.
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