That godly King Hezekiah should have such a wicked son is another one of those puzzles in biblical history. If Manasseh was born in 709, then he was seven years old when his father was healed and the miracle of the shadow occurred. He was eight years old when the 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain. Apparently these miracles made little impression on his heart. Many scholars think that Manasseh was coregent with his father for perhaps ten years (697–687), from ages twelve to twenty-two, and the son lived in close relationship with a godly father. But the remarkable thing is that Manasseh became the most wicked king in Judah’s history, so much so that he is blamed for the fall of the Southern Kingdom (2 Kings 24:3; Jer. 15:1–4).
Manasseh’s wickedness (23:1–15; 33:1–10). He lived a most ungodly life and yet had the longest reign of any king in Jewish history. It was as though the Lord took His hand off the nation and allowed all the filth to pour out of people’s hearts. In character and conduct, he was even worse than the Amorites whom Joshua defeated in Canaan, a nation with a reputation for brutality and wickedness (21:11; Gen. 15:16). All that his godly father, Hezekiah, had torn down, Manasseh rebuilt as he led the nation back into idolatry, including the worship of Baal. He also made a detestable idol which he placed in the temple of the Lord (21:3; 2 Chron. 33:7, 15), and he encouraged the people to worship “all the starry hosts” (21:3; 33:3, 5; see Deut. 4: and 17:1–7). There was to be but one altar in the temple court, but Manasseh added altars dedicated to various gods (see 16:10–16) and thus made Jehovah one “god” among many. Yet the Lord had put His name in only one place—the temple in Jerusalem (21:4, 7; Deut. 12:11; 1 Kings 8:20, 29; 9:3), and now a multitude of false gods shared that honor with Him. Manasseh followed the religion of Molech and caused his sons to pass through the altar fire (Lev. 18:21; 20:1–5), and he consulted spiritists and mediums (21:6; 33:6; Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:11).
In His mercy, the Lord sent prophets to warn the king and the people, but they refused to listen. Some of these witnesses were no doubt killed by the king (21:16), along with other godly people who opposed the worship of false gods. God reminded His people that their enjoyment of the land depended on their obedience to the law of the Lord. This was the basic requirement of the covenant God made with His people (Lev. 26; Deut. 28—29). God had promised to keep them in the Promised Land (2 Sam. 7:10), but now He warned them that they would be taken off the land and scattered among the nations (Deut. 28:64–68; Lev. 26:33–35). This judgment had already fallen on the northern kingdom with the invasion of the Assyrian army, and it would happen to Judah when the Babylonians came (606–586). Alas, Judah didn’t learn from Israel’s chastening.
We don’t know which prophets delivered the message in 21:10–15, but nobody could misunderstand what they said. If Manasseh and the people didn’t repent and turn from their evil ways, God would send judgment so severe that just hearing about it would make their ears tingle (21:12; 1 Sam. 3:11; Jer. 19:3). This describes a frightening response to news so terrible that it’s like hearing a loud noise that makes your ears ring. The Hebrew word salal means “to tingle, to quiver,” and is related to the word for cymbals and bells. When they heard the news of the approaching Babylonian army, it would be like hearing a sudden clash of cymbals! Wake up! Wake up! But it would be too late.
But God used a second image to awaken them. Like a careful builder, He would measure the nation with His plumbline, but it would be a measuring for tearing down and not for building up. Everyone was familiar with bricklayers using plumblines to keep the walls straight as they built, but nobody measures a building in order to destroy it. (See Isa. 34: and Amos 7:7–9, 17.) God’s judgments are just and He will give them what they deserve, just as He gave Israel (Samaria) what she deserved. The third picture comes from the kitchen: God would empty the kingdom of Judah of its people just as a person wipes all the water out of a dish after washing it. It’s the image of depopulating a land by death or deportation and leaving it empty (Jer. 51:34).
The word “forsake” in 21: means “to give over to judgment.” God promised never to abandon His people (1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Sam. 7:23–24), but He also warned that He would chasten them if they disobeyed Him. God didn’t break His promises; it was the people who broke His covenant. God is always faithful to His covenant, whether to bless obedience or punish disobedience.
Manasseh’s repentance (33:11–13, 19). The writer of 2 Kings wrote nothing about the remarkable change in Manasseh’s life, but we find the record in 2 Chronicles. Apparently he displeased the king of Assyria in some way and God allowed the Assyrian officers to come to Judah and capture the king. This was no respectable act of taking somebody into custody, because they put a hook in his nose and bound him with chains (33: niv). He was treated like a steer being led to the slaughter, and he deserved it. The city of Babylon was a second capital for Assyria at that time, and there they imprisoned him.
The whole experience was one of great humiliation for this wicked king, but the Lord used it to chasten him, break his pride, and bring him to his knees. He prayed to the Lord for forgiveness, and the Lord kept His promise and forgave him (2 Chron. 7:14). Even more, the Lord moved the Assyrians to set him free and allow him to return to Jerusalem to rule over the people. What a trophy of the grace of God! Manasseh humbled himself (33:12), but the Lord first humbled him (33:19). True repentance is a work of God in the heart and a willing response of the heart to the Lord.
Manasseh’s reformation (33:14–18, 20). When he returned home, Manasseh proved the reality of his conversion by seeking to undo all the evil he had done. He fortified Jerusalem and other cities in Judah, he removed his idol from the temple (33:7, 15), and he removed from the temple all the altars he had put up to false gods. Having purged the temple, he then repaired the altar of the Lord that had been neglected, and he offered thank offerings to the Lord who had rescued him. He commanded the people of Judah to serve the Lord and he set the example. He allowed them to offer sacrifices in the high places, but not to pagan gods—only to the God of Israel. “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance,” John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt. 3: nasb), and that’s exactly what Manasseh did.
After a long life and reign, Manasseh died and was buried in the garden at his own house, not in the sepulchers of the kings (see 28:27).