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| 1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. |
Was twelve years old – If properly trained he should have had by this time a fairly well-developed character for righteousness. R3598:3
When he began – Isaiah, his supposed grandfather, having died previously. R2386:3
To reign – The brightest children the most precocious, are in greatest danger if placed in positions of responsibility and influence early in life, without experienced advisors. R2386:6
Fifty and five years – Link No.40 in the chain of Bible chronology. B50; R1980:4
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| 2 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel. |
That which was evil – Hezekiah, though a good man, was evidently a poor father. R3598:2, R4839:2
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| 3 And he built again the high places that Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them. |
He built again – Probably within 10 years of his accession to power. R2386:6
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| 4 And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, of which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. |
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| 5 And he built altars to all the host of heaven in both courts of the house of Jehovah. |
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| 6 He also caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he used magic and divination and sorcery, and appointed necromancers and soothsayers: he wrought evil beyond measure in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. |
Children to pass – Children were sometimes offered in sacrifice to the false deities on the outstretched arms of a great, hollow brass image, heated by fires built underneath. R4840:1
Son of Hinnom – In Greek, Ge-Hinnom or Gehenna, illustrating the Second Death. R4840:4
Used witchcraft – It is sufficient that God warns us not to have anything to do with occult powers. R5800:1, R265:4
A familiar spirit – A wicked spirit, who pretended to be able to give him superhuman wisdom and advice. R2387:2
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| 7 And he set the graven image of the idol that he had made, in the house of God, of which God had 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; |
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| 8 neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land that I have appointed to your fathers; if they will only take heed to do all that I commanded them through Moses, according to all the law and the statutes and the ordinances. |
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| 9 And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations that Jehovah had destroyed from before the children of Israel. |
To do worse – More evil. Sin is constitutional derangement. Through the fall the whole human family is prone to sin so that it requires continual effort under the guidance of the Lord not to go backward into sin. R3598:6
Than the heathen – The nations. The Amalekites, the Perizzites, the Hittites, and all those nations whom the Lord drove out of Canaan to make room for Israel. R3598:6
A lesson for spiritual Israel: there is a continual warfare between the flesh and the spirit and we must be continually on guard. R3599:1
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| 10 And Jehovah spoke to Manasseh and to his people; but they did not hearken. |
The LORD spake – Probably through the prophets Micah and Nahum. R2387:3
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| 11 And Jehovah brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with fetters, and bound him with chains of brass, and carried him to Babylon. |
To Babylon – The very story of the Chronicles has been found written on clay tables. R2101:5*
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| 12 And when he was in affliction, he besought Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, |
Was in affliction – The judgment of the Lord as a punishment for sin which came upon Manasseh eventuated in a blessing for the evil-doer, illustrating the principle that will go into effect in the Millennial age. R3599:1
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| 13 and prayed to him. And he was intreated of him and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah, he was God. |
Was intreated of him – Illustrating the mercy of God to the truly repentant. R3599:4
Then Manasseh knew – The clear intimation is that previously he did not know; that his sins were largely of ignorance. R2388:1
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| 14 And after this he built the outer wall of the city of David, on the west, toward Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the fish-gate, and carried it round Ophel, and raised it up a very great height; and he put captains of war in all the fortified cities of Judah. |
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| 15 And he removed the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of Jehovah, and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of Jehovah and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. |
And he took away – 674 BC, corresponding to the antitypical cleansing of the sanctuary in 1846. R3574:4*
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| 16 And he reinstated the altar of Jehovah, and sacrificed on it peace-offerings and thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah the God of Israel. |
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| 17 Nevertheless, the people sacrificed still on the high places, although to Jehovah their God only. |
In the high places – The evil effects of Manasseh's reign were never thoroughly effaced before his death. R3599:4
Many of the Lord's jewels are today suffering for sins that are past and forgiven. R3599:5
The degradations coming to the world through sin will survive the forgiveness of their sins. R3599:5
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| 18 And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of Jehovah the God of Israel, behold, they are written in the acts of the kings of Israel. |
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| 19 And his prayer, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin and his unfaithfulness, and the places in which he built high places, and set up Asherahs and graven images, before he was humbled, behold, they are written among the words of Hozai. |
They are written – Showing that the prophets did not confine themselves to oral teachings. R1145:3
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| 20 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house; and Amon his son reigned in his stead. |
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| 21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. |
Two years – Link No.41 in the chain of Bible chronology. B50; R1980:4
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| 22 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon sacrificed to all the graven images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. |
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| 23 And he did not humble himself before Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; for he, Amon, multiplied trespass. |
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| 24 And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house. |
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| 25 But the people of the land smote all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead. |
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