And Jehovah spoke by his servants the prophets saying,
Manasseh had filled Judah with idols and had done greater evil than the nations before him. At that point the record turns to God's own voice, and to the question of what God still says to a nation this far gone.
The verse comes after a long list of crimes. A reader might expect only a sentence to follow. One writer notes that God keeps speaking even here, and finds in it the worth of His Word when all else has failed:
Manasseh's deeds called for judgment, but God was not yet done with His testimony in Judah. "And the LORD said by His servants the prophets" (v. 10). So God's Word still remains the only resource in these difficult times. Here, though, it is nothing but the testimony of judgment about to fall on the people — judgment from which there is no appeal.
The wording is not "a prophet" but "His servants the prophets." One commentator presses that detail. He then weighs Manasseh's long reign against God's patience:
So the Lord spoke by the prophets — not only by one prophet. With awful solemnity He gave the reason: Manasseh had done greater wickedness than the Amorites, and he had made Judah sin with his idols. Therefore the Lord would bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who heard of it would tingle... Manasseh may have reigned for 55 years (v. 1). That made no difference to the certainty of God's judgment. People too often mistake God's patience for indulgence or indifference. But the longer He shows patience, the more awesome and terrible we can expect His judgment to be.
The message that follows points to two ruins Judah had already seen. One was Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. The other was the royal family of Ahab:
The charge was appalling, but completely just. It should have brought the nation to repentance. Its threats, if nothing more, should have startled them out of their sins. They knew what had happened to Samaria; it had already fallen. Jerusalem would receive the same punishment. The house of Ahab had perished, and their kings would not escape a similar judgment. But the message was plainly lost on them. They proved themselves a more stubborn people than the men of Nineveh. Those men had repented at the preaching of Jonah a hundred and fifty years earlier.
Manasseh's reign was murderous. One writer measures the prophets' testimony by the number of martyrs it produced:
Manasseh's reign records events that give us a complete picture, or foreshadowing, of a still more awful period to come. In it the man of sin will do his work and prosper for a time. For here we have a wicked ruler, despising all reproofs, and forcing his subjects to do evil. He places an abomination in the house of God. He persecutes to death those who will die rather than do evil. The LORD's "watchmen," His prophets, do not keep silent day or night. The huge numbers who die as martyrs prove the abundant fruit of their powerful testimony (2 Kings 21:16).
The text never names these prophets. One writer leaves the question open, and notes what came next:
What prophets God used at this time is not known. Isaiah was possibly still alive, though very aged... They refused to hear the word, so they had to feel the rod.
The book of Kings ends with Manasseh's guilt. Chronicles adds what happened next, and one writer sees God's own purpose in it:
God does not desire the death of a sinner, and His purpose was reached. Manasseh humbled himself. He judged his whole conduct before God, and God brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom... The book of Kings stops once it has recorded the king's responsibility. Chronicles shows us grace acting through judgments to restore him. What a blessed thought, that the hearts of the most hardened may become the objects of grace!
- God speaks. Before the blow falls, the LORD sends words. He was not finished speaking to Judah, even when their sin had earned judgment with no appeal.
- God waits. The messengers come in the plural, and the reign runs fifty-five years. Long patience is not indifference — and the longer it lasts, the heavier the judgment when it comes.
- God is refused. The warning pointed to Samaria and Ahab, ruins they had seen for themselves. Still they stayed harder than Nineveh, the city that repented under Jonah.
- God's servants pay. The prophets would not keep quiet day or night. The crowd of martyrs is the measure of their testimony.
- God still saves. Those who refused to hear the word had to feel the rod. Under the rod, the hardest heart of all broke — and grace restored it.
Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols;
God speaks this charge against Manasseh through His prophets. He measures the king against the Amorites, not against other kings of Judah. The Amorites were the Canaanite peoples God drove out of the land before Israel entered it. Two things make the charge so grave: he outdid them, and he did not sin alone.
God did not remove the Amorites at once. He waited first, and that wait had a reason.
God was going to permit the Amorites to fill up the cup of their iniquity before He ejected and destroyed them. This is always the way He works in His holy government. It explains the patience He shows to the guilty world we live in. He knows the full nature of man's evil from the start. But He lets it develop fully, so that when His judgment falls in full severity, every created intelligence can see it is just.
So what was left for Judah, living in God's own land?
The result was that Manasseh not only did evil himself, but "led them astray to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed." How was it possible then for Judah to stay in the land of the LORD? It became a moral impossibility.
The horror here is not only the evil itself. It is where the evil happened.
It makes the heart almost turn sick to read the list of his abominations. He "led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel." It was the worst of all corruptions — the corruption of the best. The higher the fall, the deeper the plunge… And what must the surrounding nations have thought of this record of Judah — worse than the nations God had destroyed? Seven hundred years later the apostle wrote by the Spirit, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." That could truly be said of Manasseh and Judah.
His name came out of a mercy his father had received.
Hezekiah had a wicked father. His son Manasseh did not follow his father's example, but became even more wicked than Ahaz, his grandfather. Manasseh means "forgetting." No doubt Hezekiah named him this because the LORD had delivered him and so made him forget his troubles and trials… And now Manasseh forgot all the goodness and mercy of the LORD and plunged headlong into the worst turning away from God. He brought back all the vile practices of the Canaanites. Worship of the idol Moloch flourished, along with sorcery and demonism.
The verse charges him twice: his own abominations, and the nation he dragged after him.
Sometimes one leading man draws others after him into sin. He himself is the most guilty, and his sin brings judgment on his descendants and on his people. "Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of His great wrath, which was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him."
The same principle is stated more broadly elsewhere: wickedness in a person holding a position of trust is treated as more serious than the same evil in someone under him.
Corruption or tyranny in a king is deeper guilt than failings here or there in any of his subjects… Now the word of God explicitly lays down these principles to which faith will hold.
Manasseh reigned for fifty-five years, and judgment did not fall in his lifetime.
Supposing Manasseh did reign for 55 years, that made no difference to the certainty of God's judgment. People too often mistake God's patience for indulgence or indifference. But the longer He shows patience, the more awesome and terrible we can expect His judgment to be.
A later king, Josiah, turned Judah back to God for a time.
God had already announced this judgment because of Manasseh's terrible sins, and Josiah's godliness could not change God's just judgment. Judah still had a little more quiet. But their repentance under Josiah was only outward, and evil took control again right after his death.
The nation's judgment stood. The story of the man himself does not end here.
God brought the king of Assyria against Manasseh, who bound him with chains of bronze and carried him to Babylon. There Manasseh, in his affliction, greatly humbled himself and prayed to the Lord his God. God heard his prayer and brought him back to Jerusalem… So God gave repentance to this wicked king, for His mercy endures for ever. Many point to him as a trophy of God's marvellous grace in Old Testament times.
- Forgetting. His name meant forgetting. He forgot all the goodness and mercy of the LORD, and that is where the abominations began.
- Outdoing. He went further than the Amorites, whose cup of iniquity had to fill up before God removed them. After that, Judah's stay in the land was a moral impossibility.
- Spreading. He did not sin alone. He made Judah sin, and the guilt of a leader who draws others after him falls on his people too.
- Waiting. Fifty-five years of quiet changed nothing. When people mistake His patience for indifference, the judgment to come is only more terrible.
- Sparing. The sentence on the nation stood, even through Josiah's reform. Yet the king himself, humbled in chains, became proof of God's mercy.
therefore thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel Behold, I will bring evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.
God's answer to Manasseh's reign was not a sudden blow. It came as a message through the prophets: a disaster so appalling that the news alone would leave people stunned. The verse raises the questions the chapter turns on. What makes a king's sin the ruin of a nation? Why does God warn before He strikes? Does a long reign prove His approval?
The charge is specific. Manasseh outdid the nations God had driven out of the land, and he pulled Judah down with him. One writer notes that God used more than one voice to say so.
So the Lord spoke by the prophets — not by one prophet only. With awful solemnity He declared the reason for what was coming: Manasseh had done greater wickedness than the Amorites, and he had caused Judah to sin with his idols. Therefore the Lord would bring such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all who heard of it would tingle... Manasseh did reign for 55 years (v.1), but that made no difference to the certainty of God's judgment. People too often mistake God's patience for indulgence or indifference. But the longer He shows patience, the more awesome and terrible we can expect His judgment to be.
One writer weighs the charge by what Judah had once been.
It makes the heart turn sick almost, to read the list of his abominations. He "made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem err, and do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel." It was the worst of all corruptions — the corruption of the best. The higher the fall, the deeper the plunge... Seven hundred years later the apostle, by the Spirit, declared a word that fits Manasseh and Judah exactly: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
God kept speaking to a people He was about to strike. But His word now carried only one message.
Manasseh's deeds called for judgment, but God was not yet done with His testimony in Judah. "And Jehovah spoke by his servants the prophets" (v. 10). So God's Word still remains the only resource in these difficult times. But it is nothing other than the testimony of coming judgment for the people — judgment from which there is no appeal... The Lord links their state to their exodus from Egypt. From that time on they had been sinning. Could anyone say, can anyone say, that God has not shown patience toward the people who bear His name?
The same phrase comes back later in Jeremiah, with an acted picture attached.
This time his task is to buy a clay jar. He must take some of the elders of the people with him and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. That dreadful place was notorious for the idolatry of sending children through the fire and sacrificing them to Molech... Jeremiah had to announce judgment there: "Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle" (v. 3). Then he had to break the vessel: "So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended."
Judah had a recent, visible example of what God does to a nation that abandons Him — and it moved them not at all.
The charge was appalling, though entirely just. It should have brought the nation to repentance. Its threats, if nothing more, should have startled them out of their sins. They knew the fate of Samaria — it had already fallen. Jerusalem would receive the same punishment. The house of Ahab had perished, and their kings should not escape a similar judgment. But the message clearly meant nothing to them. They proved themselves a more perverse people than the "men of Nineveh," who a hundred and fifty years earlier had "repented at the preaching of Jonah."
Manasseh later humbled himself, and God heard him. Yet the sentence announced here still fell on the nation.
Although God was so merciful, the evil of Manasseh brought upon the nation the government of God... "Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh... and also for the innocent blood that he had shed" (2 Kings 24:3-4). When king David sinned, the Lord pardoned his sin, but the government of God on his house took its course. So it was with Manasseh. God heard and answered his prayer when he humbled himself. Yet the righteous government of God still fell upon the guilty nation he had led astray.
- Cause — God names the sin behind the disaster: Manasseh outdid the Amorites and made Judah sin with his idols.
- Warning — God speaks before He strikes. "God was not, and is not, in any hurry to judge. He never sits in judgment without giving plenty of warning. But doom comes at last, and deservedly." J. Wilson Smith
- Delay — A fifty-five year reign proved nothing. Long patience is not approval. It only makes the final stroke heavier.
- Deafness — Judah could see what had happened to Samaria and still would not listen. Pagan Nineveh had listened to Jonah.
- Distinction — God forgave the king who repented. The nation he had led astray still reaped what he sowed.
And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipeth a pan, wiping it and turning it upside down.
Manasseh's reign had filled Jerusalem with terrible evil. This verse is God's answer, spoken while the king still sat on the throne. Two builder's tools and one kitchen image carry the whole message. God will measure Jerusalem by the standard that already condemned others, and then empty her.
The measuring line and the plumb line are borrowed from two ruins the people knew well. Samaria was the northern capital. It had already fallen, and Ahab's royal family had already perished. Now God holds the same tools against Jerusalem. One writer shows how plain the warning should have been:
It was a horrifying accusation, but a completely just one, and it should have brought the nation to repentance. Its threats, if nothing else, should have shocked them out of their sins. They knew what had happened to Samaria — it had already fallen. Jerusalem would receive the same punishment. The house of Ahab had perished, and their kings would not escape a similar judgment.
Scripture takes an everyday building tool and makes it a picture of judgment:
A plumb line is a simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or another weight tied to a string. It tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It pictures the exactness of the judgment God brought on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall with a plumb line, and with a plumb line He would pull it down.
The second image comes from the kitchen. You do not rinse a dish and leave it standing; you wipe it out and turn it over, empty. Manasseh's long reign of fifty-five years might have suggested God had lost interest:
This judgment of Jerusalem would be no less severe than the judgment on Samaria and the house of Ahab. Jerusalem would be wiped clean, the way someone wipes a dish and turns it upside down. Manasseh may have reigned for 55 years (v.1), but that made no difference to the certainty of God's judgment. People too often mistake God's patience for indulgence or indifference. Yet the longer He shows patience, the more awesome and terrible we can expect His judgment to be.
God had not stopped speaking to Judah. But His word now carried one message only:
Manasseh's deeds called for judgment, but God was not yet done with His testimony in Judah… God's Word still remains the only resource in these difficult times. Yet it says nothing except that judgment is coming on the people, judgment from which there is no appeal.
The verse names Manasseh, but the account reaches back much further:
The nation's cup of sin had been filling up for centuries. Manasseh's defiance of God's Word and his extreme evil made that cup overflow… They had provoked their God to anger "since the day their fathers came out of Egypt." So the evil was persistent and hopeless.
Josiah, Manasseh's grandson, later led a national reform. It bought time; it did not undo the sentence spoken here. "Lo-ammi" means "not my people" — the name God uses when He disowns:
The Holy Spirit shows us God's dealings with Judah, governed by the conduct of their kings, until God has said, "Lo-ammi." This had already been announced because of Manasseh's terrible sins, and Josiah's piety could not change the just judgment of God.
God did what He had said. But the God who announced the ruin also announced a return:
God had already carried out His word… Yet even as He was leaving Jerusalem, He announced deliverance and blessing, just as He did before driving our first parents out of Eden. He said: "I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel," Ezek. 11:17.
Manasseh himself met a different end:
God brought the king of Assyria against Manasseh, who bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. There Manasseh, in his suffering, humbled himself deeply and prayed to the Lord his God. God heard his prayer and brought him back to Jerusalem… He is often held up as an example of God's marvellous grace in Old Testament times, as Saul of Tarsus and the thief on the cross are given under the New Testament.
- Measured — the line and plumb line show the exactness of God's judgment. The wall He built up, He takes down by the same standard.
- Precedent — that standard had already levelled Samaria and Ahab's house. Judah could see her own future in their ruins.
- Patience — fifty-five years of evil reign showed God's patience, not His indifference. That patience reached back to the exodus.
- Emptied — the dish is wiped out and turned over. Josiah's reform could not cancel the judgment.
- Mercy — the sentence on the nation stood. Yet God promised to gather His people again, and the king who provoked the sentence found grace in captivity.
And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
God speaks through His prophets against Manasseh's reign. The sentence falls on more than the king. It falls on the last land and people God still called His own. Two hard questions follow. How can God forsake what He calls His inheritance? Is there any way back?
The phrase measures how little was left. Judah was the remnant, and God now says He will hand over even that. One writer sets the threat beside God's earlier care for Jerusalem under Hezekiah:
What a contrast this would be to the preserving, protecting care of God over Hezekiah when his enemies attacked him! God would forsake the remnant of His inheritance. They were the small number who had first proven faithful to Him. But they had turned away in foolish submission to the folly of their wilful king. Their enemies would defeat and plunder them. Their evil had provoked God to anger from the time He delivered them out of Egypt, and all through their history.
God had not stopped speaking to Judah. But what the prophets now brought was notice of judgment, not an offer. And the charge reached back to the exodus:
Manasseh's deeds called for judgment, but God was not yet done with His testimony in Judah. "And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets." God's Word still remains the only resource in difficult times. But here it is nothing other than the testimony of coming judgment for the people, judgment with no appeal… The Lord links their state to their exodus from Egypt. From that time on they had been sinning. Could anyone say that God has not shown patience toward those on whom His name has been called?
This is not a sudden verdict. The verse names Manasseh's sin, but one writer reads the sentence as a cup that had been filling for centuries:
Storm-clouds were gathering over the guilty nation. Everything was breaking up. The kingdom was about to end… Its cup of sin had been filling up for centuries. Manasseh's defiance of the Lord's Word and his excessive evil made the cup overflow… He would forsake His people and cause them to "become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies." They had provoked their God to anger "since the day their fathers came out of Egypt." It was persistent and hopeless evil.
Manasseh himself later humbled himself and prayed, and God heard him. So why did the judgment still fall? Writers separate God's pardon of a person from His government of a people. They point to David as the pattern:
Although God was so merciful, the evil of Manasseh brought the government of God upon the nation. Josiah's godliness delayed the judgment. But when it came, it is written, "Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed" … When king David sinned, the Lord pardoned his sin, but the government of God on his house took its course. So it was with Manasseh. God heard and answered his prayer when he humbled himself. Yet the righteous government of God fell upon the guilty nation he had led astray.
One writer puts both sides in a single line:
Manasseh, who overfilled Israel's cup of sin, is doubtless in Heaven, a sinner saved by grace late in life. But the governmental consequences of his sins remain to this day.
Judah would lose more than land. They would lose the title that set them apart. One writer names that loss, and the promise that reverses it:
after-note: DELETE
The Lord had left Jerusalem, and the throne on earth passed to the Gentiles… If God is not there, what meaning does the title "the people of God" still have? And when will this poor but ever-loved people find their blessedness again? When will "Lo-ammi" be for ever wiped from their forehead, to make way for that precious title "Ammi"? … Already, as He left Jerusalem, He announced the deliverance and the blessing. He had done the same before He drove Adam and Eve out of Eden: "I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel."
- Inheritance — Judah was all that was left of what God owned. Now He warns that He will let even that go.
- Patience — The charge runs all the way back to Egypt. This sentence ends centuries of patience. It is not a sudden temper.
- Forsaken — God shielded Jerusalem under Hezekiah. Now He promises to hand the same city to its enemies as plunder.
- Government — God forgave Manasseh, yet the nation he had led astray still reaped. Pardon and God's government are not the same thing, as David's house also shows.
- Ammi — The sentence took the title "the people of God" away. Yet in the same breath God promised the gathering that brings it back.
because they have done evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt even to this day.
Here God explains why Jerusalem will fall, and His charge does not stop at Manasseh. It runs back through the whole story of the nation to the day Israel left Egypt — so how long will God bear with evil, and what happens when His patience runs out?
The words "since the day their fathers came out of Egypt" are the sting of the verse. One writer notes that God does not date the trouble from Manasseh's reign at all, and points to what God's Word was still doing in those days:
So God's Word still remains the only resource in these difficult times. But it is nothing other than the testimony of coming judgment for the people, judgment from which there is no appeal… The Lord links their state to their exodus from Egypt. From that time on they had been sinning. Could anyone then, or can anyone now, say that God has not been patient with the people who are called by His name?
How much does that one word "evil" cover? One writer stretches it across the whole of Israel's past:
They have done evil in the sight of Jehovah their God, to provoke Him to anger. That one word, "evil," takes all in, from the calf at Horeb to the cross at Calvary. Such is Israel's past.
The calf at Horeb was the idol Israel worshipped soon after leaving Egypt. The line from it to Calvary, the place where Jesus was crucified, marks a settled habit, not one slip.
Manasseh may have reigned 55 years (v.1). That made no difference to the certainty of God's judgment. People too often mistake God's patience for indulgence or indifference. But the longer He shows patience, the more awesome and terrible we can expect His judgment to be.
Just before this verse comes a shocking threat: God will abandon the people He had kept as His own. One writer sets that beside the way He once guarded the same city:
What a contrast this would be to God's care, when He kept and protected Hezekiah under attack! God would forsake the remnant of His inheritance. These were the few who had once proved faithful to Him, but they had turned away, foolishly giving in to the folly of their wilful king (v.14). Their enemies would defeat and plunder them. This was because of their evil in provoking God to anger, from the time He delivered them out of Egypt and all through their history.
Hezekiah was the king before Manasseh, and God shielded him when enemies came. Now the same city is left to its enemies.
Josiah was a godly king who came later. One writer weighs his devotion against a sentence God had already announced:
God had already announced this because of Manasseh's terrible sins. Josiah's godliness could not change God's just judgment.
Another writer follows the story to the day the sentence fell, and sets Manasseh beside David:
God was very merciful, yet Manasseh's evil brought the government of God upon the nation. When that judgment was carried out, Scripture says it came "at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed… and the LORD would not pardon" (2 Kings 24:3-4). When king David sinned, the Lord pardoned his sin, but the government of God on his house took its course. So it was with Manasseh; though God heard and answered his prayer when he humbled himself, the righteous government of God fell upon the guilty nation he had led astray.
- Provocation — God dates the sin from the exodus, not from Manasseh. From the day they left Egypt they had been sinning. The charge is a national habit, not one bad reign.
- Patience — fifty-five untroubled years were no sign of God's approval. People mistake His patience for indifference. The longer it lasts, the more terrible His judgment will be.
- Pleading — God's Word was still the only resource in those dark days. But its message was judgment, and there was no appeal.
- Penalty — when patience ends, God forsakes the very people He had kept as His own. Once He shielded that city; now enemies plunder it.
- Pardon — God heard Manasseh when he humbled himself. Still the government of God ran its course over the nation he had led astray. Grace can forgive a man while the consequences fall.
And Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem [with it] from one end to another; beside his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing evil in the sight of Jehovah.
One horror sums up Manasseh's long reign. He filled a whole city with the blood of people who had done nothing wrong. Two questions follow. Who were these victims? Can God forgive guilt this deep?
The word "innocent" points to a particular group. It marks out those who had kept clear of the king's evil.
The Word adds that, "Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another" (v. 16). So Manasseh persecuted God's people, those who were innocent of all these shameful deeds.
One writer asks which prophets God used in those years. He weighs an old tradition about Isaiah beside the record of the historian Josephus.
What prophets God used at this time is not known. Isaiah may still have been alive, though very old. There may be truth in the tradition that he "was sawn in two" — with a wooden saw. Josephus does not mention this, though he does say that Manasseh "brutally killed all the righteous men that were among the Hebrews. Nor would he spare the prophets."
The bloodshed came on top of the idol worship. One writer draws a rule out of that pairing.
Added to this guilt in the case of Manasseh was his cruelty in shedding much innocent blood. So violence accompanied his corruption. It is usually true that when someone becomes corrupt in his attitude toward God, he will become violent toward others.
The verse charges Manasseh twice: with the blood he shed, and with the sin he led the nation into.
Manasseh was both a seducer and a persecutor. "He led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel." He set up altars for Baal and Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven in the courts of the LORD's house. He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood.
Years later, when Judah falls, the record names this bloodshed as a cause.
"Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon" (2 Kings 24:3-4). From the time of Manasseh this final decision had gone out from the Lord. Josiah's reign held it back, and it would have stayed held back under his successors if they had been willing to listen. There were two causes for this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood.
Kings never tells us that Manasseh repented. Chronicles does. Writers hold the two accounts together, and point to David to explain what follows.
Although God was so merciful, the evil of Manasseh brought the government of God upon the nation… When king David sinned, the Lord pardoned his sin, but the government of God on his house took its course. So it was with Manasseh. God heard and answered his prayer when he humbled himself, yet the righteous government of God fell upon the guilty nation he had led astray.
The damage a forgiven man leaves behind is the sober half of the story.
He set out to undo, as far as possible, his former works of wickedness. … But the innocent lives that he had taken he could never restore, nor could he ever wholly undo the evil of his former course. … Personally, through his confession and humbling of himself before God, Manasseh was forgiven. … He was the Old Testament "chief of sinners," an example at that time in whom God showed His perfect patience to anyone who would turn to Him in repentance and faith.
Two books tell one life, and each stops in a different place.
The book of Kings stops when it has taken note of the king's responsibility. Chronicles shows us grace acting through judgments to restore him. What a blessed thought, that the hearts of the most hardened may become the objects of grace!
- Corruption first. Wrong worship came first. A man corrupt toward God became violent toward people.
- Blood second. The innocent were God's own people, who kept clear of his idolatry. They likely included the prophets He sent to warn the nation.
- Charge recorded. Idolatry and innocent blood are the two stated reasons Judah lost the land. Josiah's reforms only delayed the sentence.
- Pardon possible. God forgave Manasseh when he humbled himself. As with David, pardon for the man did not cancel the consequences for the nation.
- Two books, one point. Kings closes the account at responsibility. Chronicles reopens it at grace, and the worst man in the record becomes the example for anyone who repents.