2 Chronicles 33
Manasseh’s Wicked Reign Begins 1–10
Manasseh Captive and Repentant 11–20
The Short, Evil Reign of Amon 21–25
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for 2 Chronicles 33
Verse 1
twelve years old … fifty and five years — Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah, as Matthew’s line has it, ‘Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon’ (Matt 1:10). 2 Kgs 21:1 gives the same age and length of reign and names his mother, Hephzibah. His reign follows Hezekiah’s, in which ‘the wrath of the LORD came not upon them’ (32:26).
Verse 2
the abominations of the heathen — To’evah, abomination, is the word of Deut 18:9, ‘thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations’. ‘Cast out’ is yarash, to dispossess, the verb for the LORD driving the nations from the land. Ahaz had done the same, ‘after the abominations of the heathen’ (2 Chr 28:3), and 2 Kgs 21:2 repeats the line.
Verse 3
built again the high places — ‘Broken down’ is nathats, the verb of 31:1, ‘threw down the high places’. Manasseh’s list includes the ‘host of heaven’, which the Law forbids, ‘served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven’ (Deut 17:3), and the asherim (‘groves’) of Deut 16:21.
Verse 4
altars in the house of the LORD — The LORD had said ‘In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever’, as in 2 Chr 7:16 and 2 Kgs 21:7. 2 Kgs 21:5 adds that the altars were ‘for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD’. The Law had set one place for offerings (Deut 12:11), and the house was that place.
Verse 6
pass through the fire — The phrase is that of Lev 18:21, ‘let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech’, and Deut 18:10 forbids the maker of his son ‘to pass through the fire’, the ‘observer of times’ and ‘enchanter’. Ahaz had ‘burnt his children in the fire’ in the same valley of Hinnom (2 Chr 28:3). ‘Wrought much’ is rabah, to multiply, which returns in v.23.
Verse 7
a carved image, the idol — Two words, pesel and semel, a carved image and a likeness. It was set in the house of which the LORD had said to David and Solomon, ‘In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen … will I put my name for ever’, as in 2 Chr 7:16 and 2 Kgs 21:7. The second commandment forbids any ‘graven image’ (Ex 20:4).
Verse 9
made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err — Ta’ah, to wander, is the verb in both places, so Manasseh caused the wandering. 2 Kgs 21:9 says the same, ‘Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations’, and Jeremiah names him as the cause of Judah’s removal: ‘because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah’ (Jer 15:4; compare 2 Kgs 24:3).
Verse 11
among the thorns — Choach is a thorn or bramble, and the king was taken ‘among the thorns’ and ‘bound … with fetters’ (nechushtayim, a pair of bronze chains). The Law had warned of a nation ‘which neither thou nor thy fathers have known’ (Deut 28:36). The captors are the Assyrian captains, and the place he is carried to is Babylon.
Verse 12
when he was in affliction — Tsarar is to be in a strait, and chalah, ‘besought’, is to entreat. ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble’ is the LORD’S invitation in Ps 50:15. Kana’, ‘humbled himself’, is the verb Pharaoh would not obey (Ex 10:3) and Hezekiah did (2 Chr 32:26); here it is ‘greatly’.
Verse 13
he was intreated of him — Athar is to pray, and in this form to be moved by prayer; it is used of the LORD in Ezra 8:23, ‘he was intreated of us’, and 1 Chr 5:20. ‘Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God’ is the knowledge Moses sets before Israel: ‘that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God’ (Deut 4:35).
Verse 14
west side of Gihon — The Gihon is the spring Hezekiah had stopped and led to the west of the city of David (32:30). The wall ran to ‘the fish gate’, named in Zeph 1:10 and Neh 3:3, and round Ophel, where Jotham had ‘built much’ (2 Chr 27:3). The ‘captains of war’ were set ‘in all the fenced cities of Judah’.
Verse 15
the strange gods, and the idol — Nekar, foreign, is the word of Jacob’s order, ‘Put away the strange gods that are among you’ (Gen 35:2), when he hid them under the oak at Shechem. Manasseh took away the gods and the idol he had set in the house, and the altars on the mount of the house, and ‘cast them out of the city’.
Verse 17
yet unto the LORD their God only — The high places continued, though the offerings were to the LORD alone. Asa’s reign has the same note, ‘the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days’ (2 Chr 15:17). The Law had named one place for offerings, not ‘every place that thou seest’ (Deut 12:13).
Verse 18
the words of the seers — Chozim is the plural of chozeh, the ‘seer’ Gad of 29:25. v.19 gives what is written ‘among the sayings of the seers’: his prayer, how God was intreated of him, ‘all his sin, and his trespass’, and the places where he built high places. The ‘prayer unto his God’ of this verse is the prayer of v.13.
Verse 21
two and twenty years old … two years — Amon is the son of Manasseh and father of Josiah in Matthew’s line, ‘Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias’ (Matt 1:10). 2 Kgs 21:19 gives the same age and length and names his mother, Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. His brief reign stands between Manasseh’s fifty-five years and Josiah’s thirty-one (34:1).
Verse 23
humbled not himself — The verb is kana’, used of Manasseh in v.12 and of Hezekiah in 32:26. ‘Trespassed more and more’ uses rabah, to multiply, the verb of ‘wrought much evil’ in v.6. v.22 says Amon ‘sacrificed unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them’.
Verse 24
his servants conspired against him — 2 Kgs 21:23 gives it in the same words: ‘the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house’. Amon was buried ‘in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza’ (2 Kgs 21:26). The conspiracy is also the way Joash died (2 Chr 24:25).
Verse 25
the people of the land — They slew the conspirators and made Josiah king. The same body took Jehoahaz, Josiah’s son, and ‘made him king in his father’s stead’ (2 Chr 36:1), and 2 Kgs 21:24 records this verse’s events. Josiah was ‘eight years old when he began to reign’ (2 Chr 34:1).