Bible Commentaries

2 KINGS CHAPTER 21

Manasseh’s idolatry, 2 Kings 21:1-9. Judgments prophesied against Judah, 2 Kings 21:10-15. Manasseh shed innocent blood; dieth, 2 Kings 21:16-18. Amon his son succeedeth him; and is slain by his servants; who are slain by the people: Josiah his son is made king, 2 Kings 21:19-26.

Reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem; in which time the years of his imprisonment are comprehended, 2 Chronicles 33:11.

Did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; partly by the instigation of the wicked princes of Judah, who in Hezekiah’s time were secret enemies to his reformation, and now, when their fetters were knocked off by Hezekiah’s death, break forth into open hostility against it, and corrupt the king’s tender years with their wicked counsel; and principally by his own vicious inclination.

The host of heaven; the stars, which the Gentiles had transformed into gods. See Poole "Deuteronomy 4:19".

In the house of the Lord, i.e. in the temple itself, in the holy place, because this is distinguished from the courts of the house, 2 Kings 21:5.

In Jerusalem will I put my name; that place I have peculiarly consecrated to my worship and honour; which made it the greater injustice, and impiety, and sacrilege to alienate it from God, and to dedicate it, or any part of it, especially the temple, to the service of idols, whom God abhorreth.

The one of the priests, the other of the people, 1 Kings 6:36.

Made his son pass through the fire; of which See Poole "Leviticus 18:21 2 Kings 16:3".

Observed times, i.e. lucky or unlucky days or seasons for the despatch of businesses, according to the superstitious practice of the heathens. See Esther 3:7: see also Leviticus 19:26 Deuteronomy 18:10,11.

He set a graven image of the grove; either, first, The image of that Baal which was worshipped in the grove. Or, secondly, A representation of the grove, as may seem by comparing 2 Kings 23:6. Or, thirdly, The graven image of Asherah, a god or goddess so called, possibly the same called elsewhere Ashtaroth. See Jude 6:25,28 2 Kings 23:6 2 Chronicles 15:16.

Move any more out of the land; they shall no more be carried captives into a strange land, as it had happened before.

Partly because they were not contented with those idols which the Canaanites worshipped, but either themselves invented, or they borrowed from other nations, many new idols and kinds of idolatry; and partly because as their light was far more clear, their obligations to God infinitely higher, and their helps and antidotes against idolatry much stronger than the Canaanites had; so their sins, though the same in kind, were unspeakably worse in respect of these dreadful aggravations.

Above all that the Amorites did, i.e. the Canaanitish nations, all so called from one eminent part of them. See Poole "Genesis 15:16".

Hath made Judah also to sin with his idols; by his example, encouragement, counsel, authority, and command.

By the great commotion which such terrible reports shall cause in the hearts and heads of the hearers. See Poole "1 Samuel 3:11"; See Poole "Jeremiah 19:3".

Jerusalem shall have the same measure and lot, i.e. the same judgments, which Samaria had. The line is oft put for one’s lot or portion, as Psalms 16:6 2 Corinthians 10:16, because men’s portions or possessions used to be measured by lines, Psalms 78:55 Amos 7:17. Or it is a metaphor from workmen who mark out by lines what part of the building they would have thrown down, and what they would have stand. See Isaiah 34:11 Lamentations 2:8 Amos 7:7,8 Zec 1:16. Or it is an allusion to that fact of David, who destroyed the Moabites by a measuring line, 2 Samuel 8:2.

Wiping it, and turning it upside down, as men do with a dish that hath been used; first wholly empty it of all that is in it, then thoroughly cleanse and wipe it, and lastly turn it upside down, that nothing may remain in it: so will I deal with Jerusalem, thoroughly empty and purge it from all its wicked inhabitants, and that so as to cut off all hopes of restitution.

The remnant of mine inheritance, i.e. the kingdom of Judah, the only remainder of all the tribes of Israel, which I did once choose for my inheritance, but now, notwithstanding that privilege, will utterly reject and forsake them.

This sore judgment, though it was chiefly inflicted for the sins of Manasseh and his generation, yet had a respect unto all their former sins, the guilt whereof was upon this occasion revived. See Exodus 32:31.

Innocent blood; the blood of those prophets and righteous men who either reproved his sinful practices, or refused to comply with his wicked commands and worship.

Beside his sin, i.e. his idolatry, which is elsewhere called evil, and corruption, and here sin, by way of eminency; which is the more considerable, because it is here compared with horrid cruelty, and implied to be worse than that, and more abominable in God’s sight, because it doth more directly and immediately strike at the glory and purity of the Divine Majesty, by respect unto which all sins are to be measured. And this expression God here useth in opposition to the gross error of most men, who look upon idolatry as a small sin, as a mere mistake of the mind, as the fruit of a good intention, and as an excess proceeding from zeal in religion.

In the garden of his own house, not in the sepulchre of the kings; either by the people’s designation, who judged him unworthy of that honour; or rather, by his own choice and command, as a lasting testimony of his sincere repentance and abhorrency of himself for his former crimes.

In the garden of Uzza, or, of king Uzziah, who possibly planted or enlarged it.