Chapter 21:
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| Geneva
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Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 Kings 1 Chronicles
2 Kings 21
Complete Concise
In this chapter we have a short but sad account of the reigns of
two of the kings of Judah, Manasseh and Amon. I. Concerning Manasseh, all the
account we have of him here is, 1. That he devoted himself to sin, to all manner
of wickedness, idolatry, and murder (v. 1-9 and 16). 2. That therefore God
devoted him, and Jerusalem for his sake, to ruin (v. 10-18). In the book of
Chronicles we have an account of his troubles, and his repentance. II.
Concerning Amon we are only told that he lived in sin (v. 19-22), died quickly
by the sword, and left good Josiah his successor (v. 23-26). By these two
reigns Jerusalem was much debauched and much weakened, and so hastened apace
towards its destruction, which slumbered not.
Verses 1-9
How delightful were our meditations on the last reign! How many
pleasing views had we of Sion in its glory (that is, in its purity and in its
triumphs), of the king in his beauty! (for Isa. 33:17 refers to Hezekiah), and
(as it follows there, v. 20) Jerusalem was
a quiet habitation because
a
city of righteousness, Isa. 1:26. But now we have melancholy work upon our
hands, unpleasant ground to travel, and cannot but drive heavily.
How has the
gold become dim and the most fine gold changed! The beauty of Jerusalem is
stained, and all her glory, all her joy, sunk and gone. These verses give such
an account of this reign as make it, in all respects, the reverse of the last,
and, in a manner, the ruin of it.
I. Manasseh began young. He was but
twelve years old when he
began to reign (v. 1), born when his father was about forty-two years old,
three years after his sickness. If he had sons before, either they were dead, or
set by as unpromising. As yet they knew of nothing bad in
him, and they
hoped he would prove good; but he proved very bad, and perhaps his coming to the
crown so young might help to make it so, which yet will by no means excuse him,
for his grandson Josiah came to it younger than he and yet acted well. But being
young, 1. He was puffed up with his honour and proud of it; and thinking himself
very wise, because he was very great, valued himself upon his undoing what his
father had done. It is too common for novices to be lifted up with pride, and so
to
fall into the condemnation of the devil. 2. He was easily wrought upon
and drawn aside by seducers, that lay in wait to deceive. Those that were
enemies to Hezekiah's reformation, and retained an affection for the old
idolatries, flattered him, and so gained his ear, and used his power at their
pleasure. Many have been undone by coming too soon to their honours and estates.
II. He reigned long, longest of any of the kings of Judah,
fifty-five years. This was the only very bad reign that was a long one; Joram's
was but eight years, and Ahaz's sixteen; as for Manasseh's, we hope that in
the beginning of his reign for some time affairs continued to move in the course
that his father left them in, and that in the latter end of his reign, after his
repentance, religion got head again; and, no doubt, when things were at the
worst God had his remnant that kept their integrity. Though he reigned long, yet
some of this time he was a prisoner in Babylon, which may well be looked upon as
a drawback from these years, though they are reckoned in the number because then
he repented and began to reform.
III. He reigned very ill.
1. In general, (1.)
He did that which was evil in the sight
of the Lord, and which, having been well educated, he could not but know was
so (v. 2):
He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, as if on
purpose to provoke him to anger, v. 6. (2.)
He did after the abominations of
the heathen (v. 2) and as did Ahab (v. 3), not taking warning by the
destruction both of the nations of Canaan and the house of Ahab for their
idolatry; nay (v. 9), he
did more evil than did the nations whom the Lord
destroyed. When the holy seed degenerate, they are commonly worse than the
worst of the profane.
2. More particularly, (1.) He
rebuilt the high places which
his father had destroyed, v. 3. Thus did he trample upon the dust, and
affront the memory, of his worthy father, though he knew how much he was
favoured of God and honoured of men. He concurred, it is probable, with
Rabshakeh's sentiments (ch. 18:22), that Hezekiah had done ill in destroying
those high places, and pretended the honour of God, and the edification and
convenience of the people, in rebuilding them. This he began with, but proceeded
to that which was much worse; for, (2.) He set up other gods,
Baal and
Ashtaroth
(which we translate
a grove), and all the host of heaven, the sun and
moon, the other planets, and the constellations; these he worshipped and served
(v. 3), gave their names to the images he made, and then did homage to them and
prayed for help from them. To these he built altars (v. 5), and offered
sacrifices, no doubt, on these altars. (3.) He
made his son pass through the
fire, by which he dedicated him a votary to Moloch, in contempt of the seal
of circumcision by which he had been dedicated to God. (4.) He made the devil
his oracle, and, in contempt both of urim and prophecy, he
used enchantments
and dealt with familiar spirits (v. 6) like Saul. Conjurers and
fortune-tellers (who pretended, by the stars or the clouds, lucky and unlucky
days, good and bad omens, the flight of birds, or the entrails of beasts, to
foretel things to come) were great men with him, his intimates, his confidants;
their arts pleased his fancy, and gained his belief, and his counsels were under
their direction. (5.) We find afterwards (v. 16) that he shed innocent blood
very much in gratification of his own passion and revenge; some perhaps were
secretly murdered, others taken off by colour of law. Probably much of the blood
he shed was theirs that opposed idolatry and witnessed against it, that would
not bow the knee to Baal. The
blood of the prophets is, in a particular
manner, charged upon Jerusalem, and it is probable that he put to death many of
them. The tradition of the Jews is that he caused the prophet Isaiah to be sawn
asunder; and many think the apostle refers to this in Heb. 11:37, where he
speaks of those that had so suffered.
3. Three things are here mentioned as aggravations of Manasseh's
idolatry:—(1.) That he set up his images and altars
in the house of the
Lord (v. 4), in the two courts of the temple (v. 5), in the very house of
which God had said to Solomon,
Here will I put my name, v. 7. Thus he
defied God to his face, and impudently affronted him with his rivals immediately
under his eye, as one that was neither afraid of God's wrath nor ashamed of
his own folly and wickedness. Thus he desecrated what had been consecrated to
God, and did, in effect, turn God out of his own house and put the rebels in
possession of it. Thus, when the faithful worshippers of God came to the place
he had appointed for the performance of their duty to him, they found, to their
great grief and terror, other gods ready to receive their offerings. God had
said that here he would record his name, here he would put it for ever, and here
it was accordingly preserved, while the idolatrous altars were kept at a
distance; but Manasseh, by bringing them into God's house, did what he could
to alter the property, and to make the name of the God of Israel to be no more
in remembrance. (2.) That hereby he put a great slight upon the word of God, and
his covenant with Israel. Observe the favour he had shown to that people in
putting his name among them,—the kindness he intended them, never to
make
them move out of that good land,—and the reasonableness of his
expectations from them,
only if they will observe to do according to all that
I have commanded them, v. 7, 8. Upon these good terms did Israel stand with
God, and had as fair a prospect of being happy as any people could have; but
they
hearkened not, v. 9. They would not be kept close to God either by his
precepts or by his promises; both were cast behind their back. (3.) That hereby
he seduced the people of God, debauched them, and drew them into idolatry, v. 9.
He caused Judah to sin (v. 11), as Jeroboam had caused
Israel to sin. His
very example was enough to corrupt the generality of unthinking people, who
would do as their king did, right or wrong. All that aimed at preferment would
do as the court did; and others thought it safest to comply, for fear of making
their king their enemy. Thus, one way or other, the holy city became a harlot,
and Manasseh made her so. Those will have a great deal to answer for that not
only are wicked themselves, but help to make others so.
Verses 10-18
Here is the doom of Judah and Jerusalem read, and it is heavy
doom. The prophets were sent, in the first place, to teach them the knowledge of
God, to remind them of their duty and direct them in it. If they succeeded not
in that, their next work was to reprove them for their sins, and to set them in
view before them, that they might repent and reform, and return to their duty.
If in this they prevailed not, but sinners went on frowardly, their next work
was to foretel the judgments of God, that the terror of them might awaken those
to repentance who would not be made sensible of the obligations of his love, or
else that the execution of them, in their season, might be a demonstration of
the divine mission of the prophets that foretold them. The prophets were deputed
judges to those that would not hear and receive them as teachers. We have here,
I. A recital of the crime. The indictment is read upon which the
judgment is grounded, v. 11. Manasseh had done wickedly himself, though he knew
better things, had even justified the Amorites, whose copy he wrote after, by
outdoing them in impieties, and debauched the people of God, whom he had taught
to sin and forced to sin; and besides that (though that was bad enough)
he
had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood (v. 16), had multiplied his murders
in every corner of the city, and filled the measure of Jerusalem's
blood-guiltiness (Mt. 23:32) up to the brim, and all this against the crown and
dignity of the King of kings, the peace of his kingdom, and the statutes in
these cases made and provided.
II. A prediction of the judgment God would bring upon them for
this:
They have done that which was evil, and therefore
I am bringing
evil upon them (v. 12); it will come and it is not far off. The judgment
should be, 1. Very terrible and amazing; the very report of it should
make
men's ears to tingle (v. 12), that is, their hearts to tremble. It should
make a great noise in the world and occasion many speculations. 2. It should be
copied out (as the sins of Jerusalem had been) from Samaria and the house of
Ahab, v. 13. When God lays righteousness to the line it shall be the line of
Samaria, measuring out to Jerusalem that which had been the lot of Samaria; when
he lays judgment to the plummet it shall be
the plummet of the house of Ahab,
marking out for the same ruin to which that wretched family was devoted. See Isa.
28:17. Note, Those who resemble and imitate others in their sins must expect to
fare as they fared. 3. That it should be an utter destruction:
I will wipe it
as a man wipes a dish. This intimates, (1.) That every thing should be put
into disorder, and their state subverted; they should be turned upside down, and
all their foundations put out of course. (2.) That the city should be emptied of
its inhabitants, which had been the filth of it, as a dish is emptied when it is
wiped: "They shall all be carried captive, the
land shall enjoy her
sabbaths, and be laid by as a dish when it is wiped." See the
comparison of the boiled pot, not much unlike this, Eze. 24:1-14. (3.) That
yet this should be in order to the purifying, not the destroying, of Jerusalem.
The dish shall not be dropped, not broken to pieces, or melted down, but only
wiped. This shall be the fruit, the taking away of the sinners first, and then
of the sin. 4. That
therefore they should be destroyed, because they
should be deserted (v. 14):
I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance.
Justly are those that forsake God forsaken of him; nor does he ever leave any
till they have first left him: but, when God has forsaken a people, their
defence has departed, and they become a prey, an easy prey, to all their
enemies. Sin is spoken of here as the alpha and omega of their miseries. (1.)
Old guilt came in remembrance, as that which began to fill the measure (v. 15):
"They
have provoked me to anger from their conception and birth as a people,
since
the day their fathers came out of Egypt." The men of this generation,
treading in their fathers' steps, are justly reckoned with for their fathers'
sins. (2.) The guilt of blood was that which filled the measure, v. 16. Nothing
has a louder cry, nor brings a sorer vengeance, than that.
This is all we have here of Manasseh; he stands convicted and
condemned; but we hope in the book of Chronicles to hear of his repentance, and
acceptance with God. Meantime, we must be content, in this place, to have only
one intimation of his repentance (for so we are willing to take it), that he was
buried, it is likely by his own order,
in the garden of his own house (v.
18); for, being truly humbled for his sins, he judged himself
no more worthy
to be called a son, a son of David, and therefore not worthy to have even
his dead body buried
in the sepulchres of his fathers. True penitents
take shame to themselves, not honour; yet, having lost the credit of an
innocent, the credit of a penitent was the next best he was capable of. And
better it is, and more honourable, for a sinner to die repenting, and be buried
in a garden, than to die impenitent, and be buried in the abbey.
Verses 19-26
Here is a short account of the short and inglorious reign of
Amon, the son of Manasseh. Whether Manasseh, in his blind and brutish zeal for
his idols, had sacrificed his other sons—or whether, having been dedicated to
his idols, they were refused by the people—so it was that his successor was a
son not born till he was forty-five years old. And of him we are here told, 1.
That his reign was very wicked:
He forsook the God of his fathers (v.
22), disobeyed the commands given to his fathers, and disclaimed the covenant
made with his fathers,
and walked not in the way of the Lord, but
in
all the way which his father walked in, v. 20, 21. He trod in the steps of
his father's idolatry, and revived that which he, in the latter end of his
days, had put down. Note, Those who set bad examples, though they may repent
themselves, yet cannot be sure that those whom they have drawn into sin by their
example will repent; it is often otherwise. 2. That his end was very tragical.
He having rebelled against God, his own servants
conspired against him and
slew him, probably upon some personal disgust, when he had reigned but two
years, v. 23. His servants, who should have guarded him, murdered him; his own
house, that should have been his castle of defence, was the place of his
execution. He had profaned God's house with his idols, and now God suffered
his own house to be polluted with his blood. How unrighteous soever those were
that did it, God was righteous who suffered it to be done. Two things the people
of the land did, by their representatives, hereupon:—(1.) They did justice on
the traitors that had slain the king, and put them to death; for, though he was
a
bad king, he was
their king, and it was a part of their
allegiance to him to avenge his death. Thus they cleared themselves from having
any hand in the crime, and did what was incumbent on them to deter others from
the like villainous practices. (2.) They did a kindness to themselves in
making
Josiah his son king in his stead, whom probably the conspirators had a
design to put by, but the people stood by him and settled him in the throne,
encouraged, it may be, by the indications he gave, even in his early days, of a
good disposition. Now they made a happy change from one of the worst to one of
the best of all the kings of Judah. "Once more," says God, "they
shall be tried with a reformation; and, if that succeed, well; if not, then
after that I will cut them down." Amon was buried in the same garden where
his father was, v. 26. If his father put himself under that humiliation, the
people will put him under it.
Chapter 21:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 Kings 1 Chronicles
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
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