=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.
¹ Or, _with hooks_.
=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.
¹ Or, _captains of the army_.
=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.
¹ According to another reading, _prepared_.
=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.
¹ Or, _the seers_ So the Septuagint.
=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.
¹ Or, _became guilty_.
=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.