Ver. 1. Manasseh was twelve years old.] See 2 Kings 21:1. And he reigned fifty and five years.] So long he reigned, (1.) For the punishment of the people’s sins; (2.) That he might have time enough to amend his own life; (3.) That in him, as afterwards in Paul, “God might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them who should afterwards believe on him to life everlasting.” (1 Timothy 1:16) Vide ubi supra.
Ver. 2. But he did that which was evil.] He quickly made mad Work, as we say, turning all upside down. So great is the loss of good princes, when they die: and so suddenly can God cause the sun to go down over a nation, even at noonday, for the just punishment of such ungrateful wretches as love darkness better than light, because their works are evil. See on 2 Kings 21:2.
Ver. 3. For he built again.] Heb., He returned, and built. He returned, but not to God. Whilst his father lived, he seemed to hate the high places; but now he changed his mind, but for the worse: profecit in peius. See 2 Kings 21:3. He worshipped all the host of heaven.] So do those, after a sort, that attribute to the stars more than is meet.
Ver. 4. In the house of the Lord.] Which was as bad as for a wife to bring her paramours into her husband’s bed.
Ver. 5. And he built altars.] See 2 Kings 21:5.
Ver. 6. And he caused his children to pass, &c.] Thinking thereby to merit remission of sin, (Micah 6:7) and to obtain victories, as that king of Moab did. (2 Kings 3:27) And he observed times, and used enchantments.] Five of those six sorts of witchcraft mentioned by Moses, (Deuteronomy 18:9-14) Manasseh fell into. See 2 Kings 21:6.
Ver. 7. The idol which he had made.] This was some special idol worshipped by him in a grove, and now brought into the temple, as it were on purpose to provoke the Lord. Diod.
Ver. 8. Neither will I any more.] See 2 Kings 21:8.
Ver. 9. So Manasseh made Judah.] The people follow their prince, as in a beast the body followoth the head: and as in a fish, putrefaction beginneth at the head: so here.
Ver. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh,] sc., By his prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Micah, Habakkuk, and others; sed surdo fabulam; they lost their sweet words.
Ver. 11. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them.] Manasseh, though son to good Hezekiah, and one of our Saviour’s progenitors, was not spared; and shall other such sinners go unpunished? Never think it. Of the king of Assyria.] Of the king of Babylon, saith Josephus: but herein, saith Lyra, there is no difference. Assyria was the beginning of the Babylonish monarchy. Which took Manasseh among the thorns.] Or, Thistles, as 2 Kings 14:9. Thither he had now fled to hide himself, who erst had faced the heavens, and opposed with crest and breast whatsoever stood in the way of his sins and lusts. The prophet Isaiah he had sawn asunder, if all be true that is storied of him. Now himself was carried bound to Babylon, and there put into a brazen vessel full of holes, saith Jerome, and therein tormented by fire put about it. At other times he was fed, saith Chrysostom, but with so much barley bread in a day, and so much water mingled with vinegar, as might keep him alive: being all the while bound with chains in the prison house, and this of itself was misery enough for a king to endure. We know the proverb, Si non sis qui fueris, non est cur velis vivere. Hom. i. in Matt,
Ver. 12. And when he was in affliction.] When the rod spake, he heard it (Micah 6:9) who would not hear the word. (2 Chronicles 33:10) God sent him into the dungeon to repent; as he did David into the depths, and Jonah into the whale’s belly to pray. Adversity hath whipt many a soul to heaven, which otherwise prosperity had coached to hell. He besought the Lord.] There is a prayer extant that is said to be his, pia sane et elegans, saith Lavater; but it is Apocryphal, as not found in the Hebrew text. And humbled himself greatly.] As he had sinned greatly, so his humiliation bore a proportion, being deep, downright, and such as brought him home. The prodigal changed many places ere he came home in earnest. Many came out of Egypt, that never came into Canaan. Ahab humbled himself, so did those justiciaries, (Isaiah 58:3) but not greatly, as Manasseh; their sorrow for sin was but skin deep.
Ver. 13. And prayed to him.] His afflictions, like Benhadad’s best counsellors, sent Manasseh with a cord about his neck, to the merciful King of Israel. And he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication.] Note this against those old and our new Novatians. Despair not of mercy, though never so sinful; but know, that if men can find a praying heart, God will find a pitying heart. And brought him again to Jerusalem.] How, and by what means, is not recorded. The Lord knoweth how to deliver his. (2 Peter 2:9) Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.] This lesson he had learned in the school of BabyIon. Christianorum Theologia, Crux, saith Luther. The cross had taught Manasseh more of God than ever he knew before.
Ver. 14. Now after this he built a wall.] It is uncertain how he got out of prison; whether with the king of Babylon’s good leave, or by making escape. There are that tell us, that the prison doors were opened, his chains loosened, and he delivered, as afterwards Peter was. (Acts 12:3-11) Howsoever, he thought good to fortify himself against the Babylonians, and whatsoever enemies. This, though it be here set down first, yet Josephus saith, that the first work he did after his return, was to reform religion.
Ver. 15. And he took away the strange gods.] This he had promised to do, doubtless, in his distress; and now he doth it. “Vow, and perform to the Lord your God,” &c. And cast them out of the city.] Saying unto them, “Get you hence.” (Isaiah 30:22) “What have I to do any more with idols?” (Hosea 14:8) This was his repentance from sin.
Ver. 16. And he repaired the altar of the Lord.] Which himself had defaced in his idolatrous humour. His contrition was seconded with conversion; his humiliation with reformation. And commanded Judah to serve the Lord,] Before he had seduced them, now he reduceth them into the right way; laying God’s and his charge upon them to live better.
Ver. 17. Nevertheless the people did sacrifice.] Do Manasseh what he could to the contrary. Plus valet malum inolitum, quam bonum insolitum. It is hard to break people off their sinful and superstitious customs.
Ver. 18. And his prayer unto God.] See on 2 Chronicles 33:12.
Ver. 19. His prayer also] Which was sure some excellent and eximious prayer, and is therefore so much mentioned. Affliction exciteth devotion: and then, if ever, men “pray in the Holy Ghost.” And all his sin, and his trespass.] His transgression against God, and his trespass against men. So St Paul, I was—as to the first table—-“a blasphemer,” saith he, and—as to the second—“a persecutor”: and—as to both—“injurious,” one that wronged both God and man. (1 Timothy 1:13) Among the sayings of the seers.] Or, Of Hosai, who might be some prophet, whose book is not now extant. Some Rabbis hold that Hosai is Isaiah. Others of them say, that Isaiah was slain by Manasseh, before his captivity. Seder Olam maketh mention of Ozai as a prophet under the reign of Amon.
Ver. 20. And they buried him in his own house.] See on 2 Kings 21:18.
Ver. 21. Amon was twenty and two years old.] See 2 Kings 21:19. And reigned two years.] Twelve, saith the Greeks. Perhaps he reigned ten years in his father’s absence, as Philo saith he did.
Ver. 22. Which Manasseh his father had made.] But not burnt, as he ought. (Deuteronomy 7:5) See 2 Kings 21:20.
Ver. 23. But Amon trespassed more and more.] Heb., He multiplied trespass; adding rebellion to sin, he died in it.
Ver. 24,25. See on 2 Kings 21:21-24.