Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Chronicles · About this commentary
Manasseh in Chains, and Afterward
2 Chronicles 33:1-20
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. · WEB
The worst king in the line is taken to Babylon in fetters and comes back forgiven, which is the dedication promise proved on its hardest case.
Fifty-five years, the longest reign in Judah's history, and the first nine verses are an inventory of reversal. Everything his father demolished he rebuilds; altars for the host of heaven go up in both temple courts; children pass through the fire; sorcery, divination and mediums are practiced 2 Chronicles 33:3–6.
And an image is set inside the house — the house of which God had said in this house, and in Jerusalem... I will put my name forever 2 Chronicles 33:7. The writer quotes the promise at the moment of its violation, and adds the condition that had always accompanied it 2 Chronicles 33:8.
The verdict is the worst available: under him Judah did more evil than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed 2 Chronicles 33:9. Not as bad as the peoples driven out of the land. Worse.
The warnings come and are ignored 2 Chronicles 33:10, and then the Assyrians take him in chains, bind him with fetters, and carry him to Babylon 2 Chronicles 33:11. The detail is not decorative; the most powerful king Judah ever had is removed from his own country as a prisoner.
What happens there is the reason this chapter exists. When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers 2 Chronicles 33:12.
Read against the promise made at the dedication, every verb matches. Humbling, praying, seeking, turning 2 Chronicles 7:14 — and the response follows the promise clause by clause: God was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom 2 Chronicles 33:13.
That is the formula tested on the hardest case available. If it holds for the man who filled the temple courts with altars and burned his own children, the qualification if my people has no floor beneath it. The first readers of this book had themselves been carried to Babylon and brought back, and they are shown a predecessor who made that journey in both directions.
The sentence that closes the account of it is the plainest in the chapter: then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God. Fifty years of religion of every kind, and the knowing arrives in a foreign prison.
What he does on his return is the test of the repentance, and it is thorough. He fortifies the city, removes the foreign gods and the image from the house, clears the altars he had built and cast them out of the city, rebuilds the altar of Yahweh, and orders Judah to serve him 2 Chronicles 33:15–16.
But the book will not let the restoration be complete. Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God 2 Chronicles 33:17. Half a correction — the object of worship fixed, the place still wrong. A man can undo his own idolatry and find that the habits he taught a nation for fifty years outlast his repentance.
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