2 Kingschapter 21
26 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
Key verse
Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
It stands in I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, verses 10 to 18.
The chapter
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
The world behind this chapter
2 Kings 21The history
The chapter belongs to two kings, Manasseh, who came to the throne at twelve and reigned fifty-five years, and his son Amon, who reigned two. The period is the height of Assyrian power, and Judah paid tribute through most of it. Assyrian records of the era name kings of Judah among the vassals who sent tribute, and the Prism of Ashurbanipal is one of them.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The place is Jerusalem and the hill country around it. The chapter puts altars in both courtyards of the temple, an Asherah pole inside the house, shrines rebuilt across the country, and a valley outside the walls where children were burned.
The occasion is a reversal, since everything Hezekiah had pulled down went back up, and the text gives no reason beyond the deed.
A first hearer knew that the host of heaven means the sun, the moon and the constellations, a religion that came from Assyria and Babylon. He would also have heard the list at verse 6 as the practices of Deuteronomy 18:10 and 18:11 worked through in order. A burial in the garden of Uzza rather than among the kings was a public statement about a reign.
2 Chronicles 33 records a captivity in Assyria, a prayer and a return that this account leaves out entirely.
What it meant to them
For Judah this chapter was the explanation of the exile. The sentence spoken here through unnamed prophets is quoted again after Josiah's reform and again when Babylon arrives.
It told them they were being measured by one standard, since the line that condemned Samaria was stretched over Jerusalem. The city that had survived for David's sake was held to what the north could not pass.
And it told them that blood-guilt was its own charge, standing beside the idolatry rather than inside it.
Sources cited
- The Prism of Ashurbanipal (Assyrian annals, 7th century BC)
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
Where the chapter sits
2 Kings 21 falls in Manasseh, Josiah, and the fall of Jerusalem (chapters 21–25). Manasseh's long and evil reign; Josiah's reform and the Book of the Law rediscovered; Jehoiakim's rebellion; the 586 BC fall in three deportations; the burning of the temple; Jehoiachin released from prison (25:27–30).
Before it: Hezekiah and the Assyrian crisis, chapters 18–20.
The whole shape of 2 Kings→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Manasseh rebuilds every high place his father broke
1. (vv. 1-3)
2 Kings 21:1
“Manasseh was twelve years old - Manasseh, therefore, was not born at the time of Hezekiah’s dangerous illness; and it is probable that Hezekiah had at that time no son to succeed him. According to Josephus, this was the principal cause of his grief. Hephzibah - Jewish tradition makes Hephzibah, Hezekiah’s wife, the daughter of Isaiah; but this is scarcely probable. She was, however, no doubt, known to the prophet, and it may well have been in special compliment to her that Isaiah introduced her name Isa 62:4 as one that Jerusalem would bear after her restoration to God’s favor.”
2 Kings 21:2
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Was guilty of idolatry: after the abomination of the Heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel: the old Canaanites; he committed idolatry in imitation of them, and as the Phoenicians now did before the children of Israel: the old Canaanites; he committed idolatry in imitation of them, and as the Phoenicians now did.”
3 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 21:2
“After the abominations of the heathen - He exactly copied the conduct of those nations which God had cast out of that land.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 21:2
“For so Manasses had perpetrated innumerable pollutions, having both stretched out his hands against the saints, and brought abominations into the temple, and filled the city with murders, and wrought many other things beyond excuse; yet nevertheless after so long and so great wickedness, he washed away from himself all these things. How and in what manner? By repentance, and consideration. For there is not, yea, there is not any sin, that doth not yield and give way to the power of repentance, or rather to the grace of Christ. Since if we would but only change, we have Him to assist us. And if thou art desirous to become good, there is none to hinder us; or rather there is one to hinder us, the devil, yet hath he no power, so long as thou choosest what is best, and so attractest God to thine aid.”
John Chrysostom· written before 407· HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 22.6patristic
2 Kings 21:2
“Manasseh during his minority naturally fell under the influence of the chief Jewish nobles, with whom the pure religion of Yahweh was always unpopular (compare 2Ch 24:17-18; Jer 8:1-2). They seem to have persuaded him, not only to undo Hezekiah’s work, but to proceed to lengths in polytheism, magic, and idolatry, unknown before. The sins of Manasseh’s reign appear to have been those which filled up the measure of Judah’s iniquity, and brought down the final sentence of doom on the last remnant of the chosen people (2Ki 23:26; compare Jer 15:4).”
2 Kings 21:3
“The first step in the re-establishment of idolatry seems to have been the restoration of the high places where Yahweh was professedly worshipped 2Ki 18:22, but with idolatrous rites 1Ki 14:23. The next was to re-introduce the favorite idolatry of Israel, Baal-worship, which had formerly flourished in Judaea under Athaliah 2Ki 11:18, and Ahaz 2Ch 28:2. After this, Manasseh seems to have especially affected Sabaism, which had been previously unknown in Judaea (compare 2Ki 17:16 and note).”
twelve years old when he began: Manasseh reigns fifty five years, the longest reign of any king of Judah, inheriting a kingdom his father Hezekiah had reformed. He reverses the reform in one sentence: the high places Hezekiah destroyed are rebuilt, an altar for Baal and a grove appear as in the days of Ahab of Israel, and Manasseh worships the host of heaven, the astral religion of Assyria and Babylon rather than the older Canaanite cults of the conquest era. Twelve years old at his accession, he grows up under whatever influence surrounded a boy king, and the text offers no explanation beyond the deed itself.
2. (vv. 4-5)
2 Kings 21:4
“And he built altars in the house of the Lord,.... In the holy place, as distinct from the courts in the next verse; and these were sacred to the idols of the Gentiles: of which the Lord said, in Jerusalem will I put my name; in the temple there, devoted to his service, called by his name, and where his name was called upon, see Deu 12:5 and to erect altars to idols here must be very abominable to him.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:4
“The “altars” of this verse seem to be the same with those of 2Ki 21:5, and consequently were not in the temple building, but in the outer and inner courts.”
2 Kings 21:5
“And he built altars for all the host of heaven,....”
will I put my name: Manasseh's altars stand inside the house of the Lord itself, on the very ground of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name, the promise of Deuteronomy 12 and the temple dedication turned against itself. The place chosen to carry the name now carries altars to a rival, in the inner house and in the two courts around it. The narrator states the contradiction and lets it stand as the chapter's central charge.
3. (v. 6)
2 Kings 21:6
“Made his son pass through the fire - Consecrated him to Moloch. Observed times - ועונן veonen; he practiced divination by the clouds; by observing their course at particular times, their different kinds, contrary directions, etc., etc. Used enchantments - ונחש venichesh; he used incantations, spells, and charms. Dealt with familiar spirits - ועשה אוב veasah ob; he was a necromancer; was a raiser of spirits, whom he endeavored to press into his service; he had a Python.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
pass through the fire: Manasseh makes his son pass through the fire, most read as an offering to Molech, then works through the list Deuteronomy 18:10-11 names by name: observing times, enchantments, familiar spirits, and wizards. Every practice on that list carries its own prohibition in the Torah, and Manasseh performs all of them in sequence, as though testing each forbidden door in turn. Ahaz his grandfather had already made a son pass through the fire at 2 Kings 16:3, so the sin repeats within the family before it becomes Manasseh's own signature.
4. (vv. 7-8)
2 Kings 21:7
“A graven image of the grove - Rather, “the carved work of the Asherah.” This Asherah which Manasseh placed in the very temple itself, from where it was afterward taken by Josiah to be destroyed 2Ki 23:6. Such a profanation was beyond anything that had been done either by Athaliah 2Ki 11:18, or by Ahaz 2Ki 16:14-18; 2Ch 29:5-7.”
2 Kings 21:8
“Neither will I make the feet of Israel move . . . out of the land which I gave their fathers--alluding to the promise (2Sa 7:10). only if they will observe, &c.--This condition was expressed from the first plantation of Israel in Canaan.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
chosen out of all tribes of Israel: The carved image of the Asherah goes into the house itself, the same house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon that he had chosen it and Jerusalem out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there for ever. That promise of permanence was never unconditional: verse 8 ties Israel's continued hold on the land to observing all the law Moses commanded. Manasseh's altar stands exactly where the condition was spoken, so the violation and the promise share one room.
5. (v. 9)
2 Kings 21:9
“During the long reign of Manasseh idolatry in all manner of varied forms took a hold upon the Jewish people such as had never been known before. Compare Jer 7:18, Jer 7:31; Eze 23:37; Zep 1:5. The corruption of morals kept pace with the degradation of religion. Compare 2Ki 23:7; Zep 3:1-3; Jer 2:8; Jer 5:1.”
seduced them to do more evil: Judah hearkens not, and Manasseh seduces the people to do more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed before Israel entered the land, a comparison the text already made once at verse 2 and now extends from the king to the whole nation. The ruler who should have restrained idolatry becomes the one who spreads it furthest. Judah under Manasseh reaches, in the text's own measure, a lower point than the Canaanites it replaced.
B. I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish
1. (vv. 10-12)
2 Kings 21:10
“And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets,.... Who prophesied in the days of Manasseh; and were, according to the Jewish chronology (f), Joel, Nahum, and Habakkuk: saying: as follows. (f) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 20. p. 55.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:10
“The Lord spake by - the prophets - The prophets were Hosea, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Isaiah. These five following verses contain the sum of what these prophets spoke. It is said that Isaiah not only prophesied in those days, but also that he was put to death by Manasseh, being sawn asunder by a wooden saw.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 21:11
“Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations,.... Before named, 2Ki 21:3, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did that were before him; one of the seven nations of Canaan, a principal of them, and which is put for all the rest: and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: the worship of them, as the Targum; which he did both by his edicts, and by his example.”
2 Kings 21:12
“Both his ears shall tingle - תצלנה titstsalnah; something expressive of the sound in what we call, from the same sensation, the tingling of the ears. This is the consequence of having the ears suddenly pierced with a loud and shrill noise; the ears seem to ring for some time after. The prophets spoke to them vehemently, so that the sound seemed to be continued even when they had left off speaking. This was a faithful and solemn testimony.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
by his servants the prophets: The Lord speaks through his prophets, whom Jewish chronology names as Joel, Nahum and Habakkuk for this period, and the charge against Manasseh says he has done wickedly above the Amorites and made Judah sin with his idols, echoing the language the book has already repeated of the northern kings who made Israel to sin. Verse 12 pronounces the ears tingle formula, which falls only three times in Scripture: over Eli's house at 1 Samuel 3:11, over Manasseh's Jerusalem here, and over the temple's ruin at Jeremiah 19:3. Each occurrence announces judgment on a house that had carried the Lord's own name.
2. (v. 13)
2 Kings 21:13
“And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria,.... The Targum is, the line of destruction; and the sense is, that the same measure should be measured to Jerusalem as was to Samaria; that is, the same lot and portion should befall one as the other, that is, be utterly destroyed: and the plummet of the house of Ahab; the Targum is, the weight or plummet of tribulation; signifying, that the same calamities should come upon the families of Jerusalem, and especially on the family of Manasseh as came upon the family of Ahab.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:13
“The line - She shall have the same measure, the same judgments which Samaria had. The line is often put for one's lot or portion, because mens portions or possessions used to be measured by lines.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the line of Samaria: The Lord stretches over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, measuring the south by the instrument that already condemned the north to exile and Ahab's house to extinction. The city that had survived every wicked king before this one for David's sake now faces the same standard the ten tribes could not pass. Wiped as a man wipes a dish and turns it upside down completes the picture: a total and deliberate reversal, not a partial judgment.
3. (vv. 14-15)
2 Kings 21:14
“And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance,.... The whole land of Canaan was the Lord's inheritance; ten tribes in it were already removed, only Judah with Benjamin was left, and the Lord threatens to forsake that remnant: and deliver them into the hands of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and spoil to all their enemies; which was fulfilled in their captivity in Babylon.”
2 Kings 21:15
“Because they have done that which was evil in my sight,.... Committed idolatry: and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day; being always prone to idolatry, so provoking to God, and which they were guilty of quickly after they came out of Egypt, in the worship of the golden calf, and had ever since at times been criminal this way; and now the measure of their iniquity being almost up, would be reckoned for together.”
forsake the remnant of mine inheritance: The Lord promises to forsake the remnant of his inheritance, the phrase marking Judah as what is left after the ten tribes were already carried off, and to hand that remnant to enemies as prey and spoil. Verse 15 dates the provocation from the day their fathers came out of Egypt, tying Manasseh's sin to a pattern stretching back through the whole history the book has been narrating rather than treating him as an isolated case. The judgment answers a national record, not one reign alone.
4. (v. 16)
2 Kings 21:16
“Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood--Not content with the patronage and the practice of idolatrous abomination, he was a cruel persecutor of all who did not conform. The land was deluged with the blood of good men; among whom it is traditionally said Isaiah suffered a horrid death, by being sawn asunder (see on Heb 11:37).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
shed innocent blood very much: Manasseh sheds innocent blood very much, filling Jerusalem from one end to another, alongside the sin of leading Judah into idolatry. Jewish tradition, recorded by writers including Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and John Wesley, holds that Isaiah was sawn asunder in this persecution, a tradition many read as standing behind the unnamed man in Hebrews 11:37 who was sawn asunder for his faith. The verse names blood-guilt as its own charge, distinct from the idolatry, and both stand behind the exile the book is building toward.
5. (vv. 17-18)
2 Kings 21:17
“Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did,.... Both good and bad, for he repented, and was humbled, and did many good things afterwards, though not recorded in this book: and his sin that he sinned; his idolatry: are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? in which were recorded the most memorable events of their reigns; and in the canonical book of Chronicles are many things concerning Manasseh, which are not written here; see 2Ch 33:11.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:17
“The writer of Kings relates in eighteen verses the history of 55 years, and consequently omits numerous facts of great importance in the life of Manasseh. Among the most remarkable of the facts omitted are the capture of Manasseh by the king of Assyria, his removal to Babylon, his repentance there, his restoration to his kingdom, and his religious reforms upon his return to it. These are recorded only in Chronicles (marginal reference, see the note).”
2 Kings 21:18
“In the garden of his own house - It was probably a burying-place made for his own family, for Amon his son is said to be buried in the same place, 2Ki 21:26.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:18
“Garden - Not in the sepulchre of the kings; probably, by his own choice and command, as a lasting testimony of his sincere repentance and abhorrence of himself for his former crime.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the rest of the acts of Manasseh: The formula that closes each king's reign notes only that the rest of Manasseh's acts stand written in the chronicles of the kings of Judah, and this book stops there. The fuller record, his captivity in Assyria, his prayer, and his return to Jerusalem to remove the altars he had built, appears only in 2 Chronicles 33 and not here. Manasseh is buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, not among the kings, and Amon his son reigns in his stead.
C. Amon forsakes Jehovah and is slain in his own house
1. (vv. 19-22)
2 Kings 21:19
“He reigned two years in Jerusalem - The remark of the rabbins is not wholly without foundation, that the sons of those kings who were idolaters, and who succeeded their fathers, seldom reigned more than two years. So Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, 1Ki 15:25; Elah, the son of Baasha, 1Ki 16:8; Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, 1Ki 22:51; and Amon, the son of Manasseh, as mentioned here, 2Ki 21:19.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:19
“There is no sin more grievous than idolatry, for it is an impiety against God, and yet even this sin has been forgiven, on sincere repentance. But if anyone sins in direct opposition and on purpose to try whether God will punish the wicked or not, such a one shall have no remission, although he says to himself, "All is well, and I will walk according to the customs of my evil heart." Such a one was Amon the son of Manasseh.”
Apostolic Constitutions· written before 380· CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 2.23patristic
2 Kings 21:20
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed idolatry: as his father Manasseh did: he imitated him in that, but not in his repentance and humiliation, 2Ch 33:23.”
2 Kings 21:21
“And he walked in all the ways that his father walked in,.... In his wicked way, his idolatry, witchcraft, and murders: and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them; Baal, Ashtoreth, and all the host of heaven, and all the carved images his father made, which it seems he only removed, but did not break in pieces, 2Ch 33:22.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 21:21
“At Manasseh’s death, the idolatrous party, held in some check during his later years 2Ch 33:15-17, recovered the entire direction of affairs, and obtained authority from Amon to make once more all the changes which Manasseh had made in the early part of his reign. Hence, we find the state of things at Josiah’s accession 2Ki 23:4-14; Zep 1:4-12; Zep 3:1-7, the exact counterpart of that which had existed under Manasseh.”
2 Kings 21:22
“And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers,.... Of David, Solomon, &c. and walked not in the way of the Lord; prescribed by him in his law for the worship of him.”
twenty and two years old: Amon takes the throne at twenty two and reigns only two years, doing evil as his father Manasseh did before Manasseh's own late repentance recorded in Chronicles. He walks in his father's way and serves the idols Manasseh had served, without walking in his father's late turn back to the Lord: the son repeats the sin and skips the repentance. Verse 22 states it plainly, he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, the same fathers whose God Manasseh himself returned to before his death.
2. (vv. 23-24)
2 Kings 21:23
“And the servants of Amon conspired against him,.... Some of his domestic servants, and perhaps his courtiers, not on account of his idolatry, but for some ill usage of them: and slew the king in his own house: which they had an opportunity to do, being his servants.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 21:23
“This conspiracy may have been due to the popular reaction against the extreme idolatry which the young king had established.”
2 Kings 21:23
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 21:24
“The intention of the conspirators had perhaps been to declare a forfeiture of the crown by the existing line, and to place a new dynasty on the throne. This the people would not suffer. They arrested them and put them to death; and insisted on investing with the royal authority the true heir of David, the eldest son of Amon, though he was a boy only 8 years old.”
slew the king in his own house: Amon's own servants conspire against him and kill him inside his own house, the second king in the book to die by conspiracy rather than in office. The people of the land intervene and execute the conspirators rather than letting the throne pass to whatever faction killed him, then place Josiah, Amon's son, on the throne in his place. Their action preserves the Davidic line at the very moment a coup might have broken it, one more turn of the thread that keeps a light burning in Jerusalem for David's sake.
3. (vv. 25-26)
2 Kings 21:25
“Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? See Gill on 2Ki 21:17.”
2 Kings 21:26
“The garden of Uzza - The family sepulcher or burying-place. It is said 2Ki 21:3, 2Ki 21:7, that “Manasseh made a grove; and he set a graven image of the grove,” etc. וישם את פסל האשרה אשר עשה vaiyasem eth pesel haasherah, asher asah: “And he put the graven image of Asherah, which he had made,” into the house. Asherah, which we translate grove, is undoubtedly the name of an idol; and probably of one which was carved out of wood. R. S.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the rest of the acts of Amon: The closing formula for Amon matches every other king's, the rest of his acts written in the chronicles of the kings of Judah, a record this book does not reproduce. He is buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza, beside his father Manasseh, and Josiah his son reigns in his stead. The chapter that opened with Judah's deepest fall closes by naming the king under whom the book records its deepest reform.
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 →
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.