2 Kingschapter 21
26 verses · BSB2 Kings book hub →
Speaks with:2 Chronicles 33×62 Kings 21×52 Samuel 7×32 Kings 17×22 Chronicles 7×2Daniel 9×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Manasseh reigns fifty-five years, the longest in Judah's history and the worst. He rebuilds the high places his father broke, raises altars for Baal and an Asherah as Ahab did, worships the host of heaven, and builds altars in the two courts of the house of which Jehovah had said, 'In Jerusalem will I put my name.' He makes his son pass through the fire, practices augury, deals with them that have familiar spirits, and fills Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to another. The prophets answer with a builder's image of demolition: the line of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab's house stretched over Jerusalem, the city wiped as a man wipes a dish and turns it upside down.
Context
History · Jeremiah — 2 Kings overview
- A. 1–9 Manasseh rebuilds every high place his father broke
- B. 10–18 I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish
- C. 19–26 Amon forsakes Jehovah and is slain in his own house
The outline
A.Manasseh rebuilds every high place his father brokevv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →B.I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dishvv. 10 to 18
Read vv. 10 to 18 →C.Amon forsakes Jehovah and is slain in his own housevv. 19 to 26
Read vv. 19 to 26 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Kings 21The history
Fifty-five years is the longest reign in Judah's history, and almost all of it was spent as an Assyrian vassal under Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal at the height of the empire's power. Ashurbanipal's own prism lists Manasseh of Judah among twenty-two vassal kings who supplied materials and troops. Vassalage brought the overlord's religion in with it, which is the background to nearly everything he built.
The list of what he restored and added is deliberately exhaustive: the high places his father had broken, altars to Baal, an Asherah pole like Ahab's, and altars for all the host of heaven built in both temple courts. Star worship was the state religion of Assyria, and rooftop altars for the heavenly bodies show up again when Josiah tears them down. He also put a carved image inside the house itself.
The rest is the occult catalogue the Law had banned by name — passing his son through the fire in the valley south of the city, fortune-telling, omens, mediums, and spiritists. And the summary charge is blood: he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to the other. Jewish tradition, echoed in the New Testament's list of martyrs who were sawn in two, holds that Isaiah died under him.
The book of Chronicles adds what this chapter leaves out — that Assyrian officers took him with hooks and bronze fetters to Babylon, that he humbled himself there, and that he was restored to Jerusalem. Hauling a rebellious vassal to Babylon and later reinstating him was standard Assyrian practice under Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, so the added account fits the period exactly. Kings records the verdict; Chronicles records the man's end.
What it meant to them
The first hearers were told outright that the exile was decided here. Later, when Josiah does everything right, the book says God did not turn from the fierceness of his anger because of all the provocations of Manasseh.
That was hard, and it was meant to be. Fifty-five years of a nation being formed in idolatry could not be undone by one good king in one generation, however sincere.
Sources cited
- The Prism of Ashurbanipal (Assyrian annals, 7th century BC)
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Kings 21. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.