The Most Unlikely to Find Grace

“The Most Unlikely to Find Grace” Exegesis of 2 Chronicles 33:1-20

Presented to: Dr. Bayer

Course: 4053

Joshua Wingerd

November 20, 2014

Wingerd 1

Thesis: The Chronicler describes Manasseh’s apostasy (lu^m) and subsequent repentance to

encourage the exiles returning from Babylon that no one is too far gone for Yahweh to restore.

Outline:

I. Manasseh’s reign is summarized. (1-2)

A. He reigned a long time. (1)

B. He lived like the Canaanites. (2)

II. Manasseh was very evil. (3-9)

A. He undid the good his father had done. (3)

1. He rebuilt the high places. (3a)

2. He constructed altars for false gods. (3b)

3. He worshipped nature. (3c)

B. He defiled the Lord’s temple. (4-5)

1. He built altars in the Lord’s temple. (4)

2. He built many altars in the Lord’s temple. (5)

C. His evil was extensive. (6)

1. He sacrificed his children. (6a)

2. He practiced witchcraft. (6b)

D. God responded to his evil. (7-8)

1. He had chosen Jerusalem and the temple for Himself. (7)

2. He had promised to keep His people secure there. (8)

a. It had been appointed for their fathers. (8a)

b. The promise was dependent on whether or not they followed the Law of Moses.

(8b)

E. Manasseh led the nation into more evil than Canaan. (9)

III. Manasseh came to know Yahweh. (10-13)

A. Yahweh spoke to a deaf people. (10)

B. Yahweh brought an army against them. (11)

1. They were from Assyria. (11a)

2. They took Manasseh—bound—to Babylon. (11b)

C. Manasseh humbled himself. (12)

D. Manasseh spoke to Yahweh, and He heard. (13)

1. He restored Manasseh’s kingdom. (13a)

2. Manasseh came to know that Yahweh is God. (13b)

IV. Manasseh showed repentance. (14-17)

A. He effected physical change. (14)

B. He effected spiritual change. (15-17)

1. He removed false worship to outside Jerusalem. (15-16a)

2. He commanded the people to worship Yahweh. (16b)

3. The people continued to use the high places. (17)

V. Manasseh’s reign was summarized. (18-20)

A. The Chronicler wrote a summary statement. (18-19)

B. Manasseh died. (20)

1. He was buried in his house. (20a)

2. His son Amon inherited the kingdom. (20c)

Wingerd 2

Introduction:

There have been many people in the history of the world who have been seen as being

beyond grace. Hitler. Stalin. Bin Laden. These, among others, have been imagined as the worst

of the worst. In the days of the Davidic monarchy, records were kept of the kings’ reigns. Some

were good; some were evil. For the Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon for their

wickedness, they knew that one sole ruler was to blame. King Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah

and the grandfather of Josiah, was the reason for the exile, according to the author of 2 Kings

21:1-18. However, after the return from exile the people did not need to be reminded about why

they had gone into exile, but rather they needed hope. So, by the time the Chronicler reaches

Manasseh’s chapter in Israel’s history, he incorporates a huge change from his most basic source

(the book of Kings) which will be viewed in detail in the exegesis that follows. The Chronicler

describes Manasseh’s apostasy (lu^m) and subsequent repentance to encourage the exiles

returning from Babylon that no one is too far gone for Yahweh to restore.

Wingerd 3

I. Manasseh’s reign is summarized. (1-2)

The historical narrative that the Chronicler recorded in 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 begins in the

first two verses by introducing the reader to Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah. Good king Hezekiah

was now dead, and the kingdom had been transferred into his son’s hands. These opening verses

almost perfectly cite the opening two verses of the parallel passage in 2 Kings 21; the only

difference between them is that Manasseh’s mother’s name is omitted in Chronicles.1

A. He reigned a long time. (1)

Manasseh became king at age twelve, around the year 696 B.C.,2 and he ruled longer than

any other king of either Israel or Judah.3 The length of his reign is a source of interest for

commentators, because if he reigned for fifty five years after Hezekiah died, then it throws off

the biblical chronology a bit,4 so some scholars opt that Manasseh was co-regent with Hezekiah

for the last ten years of Hezekiah’s life, before he began to reign alone.5 Another interesting

feature of the length of Manasseh’s reign is simply that it was the longest, especially considering

what verse 2 mentions, and 3-9 elaborate on about the wickedness of Manasseh. “[He] would

have represented something of a problem: how is it that this king who represented the pinnacle of

evil also enjoyed the divine blessing of long life? The Chronicler’s account of Manasseh’s

punishment, repentance, and reform … makes [the narrative] a dramatic confirmation of the

validity of retribution theology and the efficacy of repentance.”6 The original readers (hearers?)

of this book would likely have had the 2 Kings’ account in mind as this story unfolded, so to hear

that the king whose fault it was that they went into exile (cf. Jeremiah 15:4) experienced a longer

1 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012), 478. 2 Ibid., 478.

3 Ibid., 477. 4 Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 15 (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson,

1987), 266. 5 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity

Press, 1994), 519. 6 Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, WBC, 267.

Wingerd 4

life than any other king would have aroused their interest, as it should the modern reader’s

interest as well. But, at this point in the text the only information divulged has been Manasseh’s

age and length of his reign.

B. He lived like the Canaanites. (2)

While many commentators lump verse 2 with verses 3-9, it seems better to keep verse 2

with verse 1, as a general description of Manasseh’s state of morality. Verses 3-9 describe it in

detail.

It is here, in verse 2 that the moral summary of Manasseh’s reign is given. He did more evil

than the Canaanites had done. The Canaanites were driven out of the land because their sin had

reached its full mark—not yet complete at the time of Abraham (Genesis 15:16)—and in

Leviticus 18:1-23 Moses records laws against sexual deviations, which Yahweh gives as the

reason the Canaanites were spewed from the land (Leviticus 18:24-28). While the Chronicler

does not focus specifically on the fact that Manasseh was the cause for the Babylonian exile (cf.

2 Kings 24:3; Jeremiah 15:4), inclusion of the fact that his sin was greater than that of the

Canaanites certainly hints at it since the Canaanites were expelled for their sin. “By implication

here, Judah deserved the same fate as the Canaanites.”7

II. Manasseh was very evil. (3-9)

Verses 3-9 focus entirely on the evil that Manasseh committed. Interestingly, “Manasseh’s

wrongdoing [escalates] from ‘evil’ to ‘much evil’ to ‘more evil’ than what the destroyed

Canaanites perpetrated (vv. 2, 6, 9).”8 While it may seem like a random conglomeration of evils

that the Chronicler throws together, it is actually very carefully structured inside the inclusio of

7 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 478. 8 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes: 1 & 2 Chronicles, vol. 3

(Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994), 635.

Wingerd 5

verse 2 and 9 referring to the Canaanites’ evil.9 Verse three describes the stark contrast between

Manasseh and his father, Hezekiah. Verses 4-5 describe Manasseh’s desecration of the temple

with pagan worship. Verse 6 describes the extensiveness of Manasseh’s evil. Verses 7-8 describe

God’s response to Manasseh’s evil. Verse 9 describes Manasseh’s evil again, and again draws a

comparison to the Canaanites, completing the inclusio of evil in Manasseh’s life.

A. He undid the good his father had done. (3)

If there was ever proof that godliness is not genetic, it would be in the life of Manasseh. His

father, King Hezekiah, was the first king in the Chronicler’s report to do what was right like

David had done (cf. 2 Chronicles 29:2; 31:20).10

It is interesting to point out that his name means

something about forgetting the troubles of his father (cf. Genesis 41:51),11

though it really

doesn’t affect the story at all. Manasseh showed his variance with his father in three specific

ways, the explanation of which seems to be influenced by the report given in 31:1 about

Hezekiah.12

1. He rebuilt the high places. (3a)

First, Manasseh undid the good his father had done in eradicating the high places. The

“high places” is the English translation of the Hebrew term tomb* (b m t). “Prior to the

monarchy, t were considered legitimate worship spaces and received no condemnation,

9 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John

Knox, 1993), 1004-1005. 10 King Asa was held up in 1 Kings 15:11 as doing right like David; Amaziah did what was right, but not like

David (2 Kings 14:3); Ahaz specifically did not do right like David (2 Kings 16:2). The Chronicler would later hail

Josiah as doing right like David (2 Chronicles 34:2). 11 It is interesting that his name refers to forgetting father’s household. Hezekiah named him, so it could refer

to the sin of Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father, which Hezekiah himself had grown up around, or it could be an ironic

reference that Manasseh turned around and undid the good of his father—forgetting it. The first is most likely, but

even that only builds the irony of the second option. 12 Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, WBC, 263. It is also interesting that the report is given in the reverse

order; the high places were the last torn down, but the first rebuilt.

Wingerd 6

neither for their existence nor for their use.”13

Therefore, the reconstruction of the high places

could be seen as the least sinful of Manasseh’s compromises,14

but the fact that the Chronicler

will twice quote Yahweh (33:4, 7-8) shows that high places were still a sin issue, and God was to

only be worshipped at one location: the temple.15

2. He constructed altars for false gods. (3b)

Regardless of how evil reconstructing other areas of worship was, the true heart of

Manasseh is shown in what he did next. He built altars for Baal and Asherah. Baal was the

storm-god of the Canaanites.16

Asherah could refer “to some sort of cult object symbolizing a

goddess, perhaps a wooden pole or a tree … or even (though difficult to equate with the idea of a

goddess) a phallic symbol.”17

Regardless of what specific form this image took, the point is that

Manasseh was guilty of building them in direct defiance of Yahweh (cf. Exodus 20:4).

3. He worshipped nature. (3c)

Manasseh did not stop with altars and images of false gods. He also worshipped the sun,

moon, and stars.18

While it is difficult to tell specifically what this looked like, the point remains

that Manasseh completely undid the good that his father had done. Manasseh is here described as

the worst king of Judah’s history because “worship of the ‘host of heaven’ is not ascribed to any

other king.”19

B. He defiled the Lord’s temple. (4-5)

Not only did Manasseh undo the good of his father, but he went even further, and defiled the

temple of Yahweh with pagan religion. In the Hebrew, the word hw*hy+ occurs four times, and

13 Bill T. Arnold and H. Williamson G. M., Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books (Downers

Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 413. Saul visited Samuel at a high place in 1 Samuel 9:18-25. 14 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1005. 15 Cf. Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman about worship in John 4:19-20. 16 Bill T. Arnold, Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books, 140. 17 Ibid., 140. 18 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 479. 19

Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1006.

Wingerd 7

twice it occurs with a form of ty!B in these two verses. This is to show that Manasseh’s altars

were in stark contrast to the prescriptions of Yahweh.

1. He built altars in the Lord’s temple. (4)

The “house of the Lord” is the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Manasseh is reported as

having built altars there. “[T]he clear implication is that these altars were dedicated to other

deities.”20

This is due to what surrounds it. Before, the Chronicler shows him building Baals and

Asherahs, and worshipping the heavens; and after, the Chronicler adds a statement from Yahweh

taken from 2 Chronicles 7:16.21

The allusion is from Solomon’s vision of God after the temple had been dedicated. God told

Solomon that He consecrated the temple for His name to dwell within. “Chapter 7 went on to

speak of human behavior that could interfere with the promise—namely, abandoning the Torah

and exclusive worship of the Lord. Manasseh becomes guilty of those very sins.”22

Again, the

Chronicler is continuing to build up suspense in the readers’ minds that would lead them to

think, “This is the sinner that caused us to go into exile.” The clues are everywhere.

2. He built many altars in the Lord’s temple. (5)

If there was any doubt that Manasseh was instituting pagan worship in the temple, verse 5

makes it clear. He built altars for the sun, moon, and stars in the temple. “The reference to the

two courts of the house of Yahweh is not completely clear,”23

but what should be clear from this

verse is that Manasseh filled the temple with paganism. No longer was it Yahweh’s home, but

rather it seems as if Manasseh was seeking to install paganism as the national religion. Some

scholars have argued that the reason that paganism and reform would cycle through the nation

20 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 479. 21 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 520. 22 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 635. 23

Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 479.

Wingerd 8

was due to the Assyrian imposition of their religion on the people they had subjugated.24

Regardless of whether or not Assyria was responsible for Manasseh’s institution of paganism in

Yahweh’s temple, it is not impossible that Manasseh was trying to import paganism as the

national religion.

C. His evil was extensive. (6)

Manasseh’s evil reaches a climax in this verse. The Hebrew emphasizes Manasseh as the

guilty party in this verse by beginning with the third person-masculine-singular pronoun. The

passage is connected closely with Deuteronomy 18:9-13 where the practices found therein are

practiced by those who are an abomination to the Lord.25

No other monarch was ever attributed

with as much evil in as short a space.26

1. He sacrificed his children. (6a)

The first thing stated here is that Manasseh was guilty of child sacrifice. It is basically given

verbatim to the description in 2 Kings, except in this text, the Chronicler adds where Manasseh

practiced child sacrifice. Jeremiah 32:33-35 gives mention to child sacrifice in the valley of Ben-

Hinnom as well, as a clear example of Judah turning its back on Yahweh. King Ahaz,

Manasseh’s grandfather was also guilty of child sacrifice in this same valley (2 Chronicles 28:3),

who for the Chronicler was the worst king in Judah’s history.27

The arc of suspense is growing:

will Manasseh prove worse than his grandfather?

2. He practiced witchcraft. (6b)

If it was not bad enough that Manasseh sacrificed his sons in the fire, Manasseh was guilty

of all the sins in Deuteronomy 18:10-11, including the witchcraft sins described there. Israel was

24 Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, WBC, 267-268. More on Manasseh’s subjugation by Assyria at 33:11,

but suffice it to say that Dillard disagrees with these scholars. 25 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 520. 26 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1006. 27


Wingerd 9

supposed to listen to the prophets instead of practicing these things28

(cf. 33:10; 2 Kings 21:10-

15).

But, when it comes to what the specific infractions of Manasseh are in this verse, it is better

to just see them as a comprehensive list of abominable practices than it is to try to figure out

exactly what each sin is. “None of the terms used here are very clear. They cover the whole field

of magic and divination.”29

Manasseh was an abomination to the Lord, and the Lord would

respond to his sinfulness.

D. God responded to his evil. (7-8)

This subsection of Manasseh’s evil seems to return to the details presented in verses 4-5, but

this time focusing on one specific altar. “The word lm#s#, sculpture or statue, is derived from

Deut. iv. 16, but has perhaps been taken by the author of the Chronicle from Ezek. viii. 3, where

lm#s# probably denotes the statue of Asherah.”30

The account in 2 Kings 21:7 records that he set

up an altar for Asherah in the temple rather than simply ‘an idol’ as the Chronicler refers to it.31

“With this step Manasseh reached the extreme negative pole of the principle of the Lord’s

exclusivity, laid down by the concept of ‘jealousy’ … (Exod. 20:5).”32

1. He had chosen Jerusalem and the temple for Himself. (7)

Manasseh placed an altar for Asherah in the temple of the Lord. It was the very temple that

God had spoken to Solomon about in 2 Chronicles 7:12-20. In fact, the whole Manasseh story

could be seen as a commentary on this passage33: “[it] represented for [the Chronicler] the

28 Ibid., 480. 29 Jacob M. Myers, II Chronicles, Anchor Bible Commentary (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), 197. 30 C. F. Keil, Keil and Delitzsch Commentaries on the Old Testament: Chronicles (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B.

Eerdmans, 1950), 479-480. 31 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 480. 32 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1006. 33

Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 521.

Wingerd 10

theological basis of the era in which he and his contemporaries lived.”34

The 2 Chronicles 7

passage can be summed up as follows: the Lord chose the temple as His own (12), humble living

and repentance would ensure God’s blessing on the people (13-14), the Lord would listen to

prayers in the temple because He had chosen to dwell there (15-16), the obedience of the king

would establish the throne in Jerusalem (17-18), disobedience—including serving other gods—

would cause the people to be uprooted from the land (19-20). The reason the Chronicler alludes

back to this passage is because “Manasseh ‘put’ the image of the idol in the very sanctuary

where the Lord had ‘put’ the divine name, as if to assert, ‘Not thy will but mine be done’.”35

In the Manasseh story, the Chronicler records specifics from God in verses 7-8 that are not

recorded anywhere else in the Old Testament.36

In verse 7 those specifics are that God chose

Jerusalem and the temple that was there out of all the tribes and buildings of Israel. This

terminology occurs repeatedly throughout the Old Testament, but nowhere is the reasoning given

(cf. 2 Chronicles 6:6; 1 Kings 11:13, 32). In 1 Kings 11:13, Jeroboam is told by a prophet that

the Lord chose Jerusalem for David, but that is the first and closest to a given reason for the

statement in 2 Chronicles 33:7. It is clear that God chose Jerusalem for David’s dynasty.

2. He had promised to keep His people secure there. (8)

Another portion that is not directly attested anywhere else is what the Chronicler presents

from the mouth of God in verse 8. It explains that God had promised not to remove the people

from the land. The land had been set aside for their ancestors, and their possession of it was

dependent on whether or not they obeyed the Law of Moses.

a. It had been appointed for their fathers. (8a)

34 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 635. 35 Ibid., 635. 36


Wingerd 11

The land had been appointed for the people’s fathers. God had promised it to Abraham

originally (Genesis 12:7), to the Israelites prior to entering the Promised Land (Deuteronomy

30:15-20), and to David when the Davidic covenant was made (1 Chronicles 17:7-10). It is also

interesting that the Chronicler alters this statement from its rendering in 2 Kings: “the Chronistic

alteration to the second person thus conveys a stronger attachment to the land, which the Lord

‘appointed for your fathers’.”37

It did not just belong to Israel’s fathers; it belonged specifically

to the readers’ fathers.

b. The promise was dependent on whether or not they followed the Law of

Moses. (8b)

As Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, the land was not guaranteed to stay with the

people. God set before them “life and death” in those verses. Life was described in verse 16 as

what would happen if the people obeyed the Law of Moses. Death was described in verses 17-18

as what would happen if the people worshipped other gods and ignored the Law of Moses. The

Chronicler’s point is that the people “had denied … their very distinctiveness as God’s people as

well as any right to occupy their land and temple,”38

through the sinfulness of both Manasseh

and the people over whom he ruled.

E. Manasseh led the nation into more evil than Canaan. (9)

Given that Manasseh and his people had both scorned and despised the gift of the land that

God had given them, it would come as no surprise that God would expel them from the land. The

Chronicler continues to build towards the expected ending by concluding this section with the

other end of the inclusio that began in verse 2.39

The nation had grown more wicked than

Canaan, and the reason Canaan was expelled was for their wickedness (Leviticus 18:24-28). In

37 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1008. 38 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 520. 39


Wingerd 12

fact, the Chronicler’s account emphasizes the sins of the people more so than the King’s account

does.40

The Chronicler is pulling the readers into the story and paralleling it, as he has to this

point, with the Kings’ account, which causes the readers to think they know what is about to

happen next. The surprise is coming.

III. Manasseh came to know Yahweh. (10-13)

This section of the Chronicler’s account is almost entirely missing from the account in

Kings.41

The part that is most closely related is the summary statement of 2 Kings 21:10-15 in 2

Chronicles 33:10—both of which actually begin with the same words: “And the Lord spoke.”42

This section marks the turning point in the history of Manasseh. In fact, the section itself is a sort

of chiasm. Yahweh speaks in verse 10, but is ignored. Yahweh acts in verse 11 to get

Manasseh’s attention. Manasseh acts in verse 12 to get Yahweh’s attention. Manasseh speaks in

verse 13, and Yahweh heeds his prayer. “The [C]hronicler now leaves the 2 Kings account until

vv. 18 and 20, staying under the influence of 2 Chronicles 7.”43

A. Yahweh spoke to a deaf people. (10)

The most interesting thing about this summary verse (summary of 2 Kings 21:10-15) is that

it completely overlooks anything related to the fact that Manasseh had caused Judah to be

expelled from the land.44

“The sin of the people in Kings is cumulative, whereas in Chronicles

people are typically punished in their own lifetime for their misdeeds.”45

The question raised at

this point is whether or not Manasseh’s punishment and restoration are historical realities, or

40 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1008. 41

C. F. Keil, Keil and Delitzsch: Chronicles, 480. 42

Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1008. 43 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 635. 44 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 481. 45

Ibid., 481.

Wingerd 13

simply just an extended parable for the returning exiles to look at and understand. This will be

explored in depth in verse 11.

Another interesting part of this verse is that the Chronicler completely omits any mention of

the prophets. Instead, he alludes to the common prophetic announcement—“thus says the

Lord”—and indicates that Yahweh was the one who spoke to the people through the mouth of

the prophets. In 2 Kings, Manasseh was credited with shedding innocent blood in Jerusalem, and

Jewish tradition states that Manasseh was responsible for the death of the prophet Isaiah.46

“If the

Chronicler had included [2 Kings 21:16], it would have been more difficult for him to

rehabilitate Manasseh.”47

However, in beginning this section with a clear parallel to the Kings

account, the people are probably remembering what the author of Kings had written. They knew

that Manasseh was evil. They knew that he was the cause for the exile. They knew that he did

not listen to the prophets and instead had them killed.

B. Yahweh brought an army against them. (11)

This is where Manasseh’s story intersects with the history of other Near Eastern cultures.

Assyria captured Manasseh and they took him to Babylon; both of these statements will be

discussed below. The key exegetical questions of the whole passage come up in this verse: did

this really happen? or is the Chronicler taking creative license with this story?

However, prior to observing the historicity, it must be pointed out that the text states that

God brought these against Manasseh. “Yahweh is designated as the ultimate cause of the

Assyrian attack on Manasseh.”48

God is the worker and Assyria is the hammer (cf. Isaiah 10:13-

15).

46

James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983-

1985), 143. Martyrdom of Isaiah 5:1-2, 11, 14; cf. Hebrews 11:37 “sawed in two.” 47 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 481. 48

Ibid., 481-482. Cf. 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 versus 32:13-14.

Wingerd 14

1. They were from Assyria. (11a)

The first thing to state is that these people came from Assyria. Since the king is unnamed, it

is impossible to know for certain when this took place,49

but that does not at all mean that it did

not take place. Assyria was a real enough world power at the time when Manasseh ruled, though

they were extinct as a leading world power by 612 BC.50

Evidence exists that Manasseh was

among other kings who brought tribute to Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, sometime between 680-

669 BC,51

but the most likely date for the capture of Manasseh remains in 648 BC.52

2. They took Manasseh—bound—to Babylon. (11b)

There are two things to discuss here. First, the simple fact that they took Manasseh,

specifically focusing on how they took him, will be discussed. Second, the importance of

Babylon as his final destination will be discussed. The most important thing to remember

throughout this section is that this is exactly what Manasseh deserved. He was a pagan. He

ignored—and murdered—the prophets. He defiled the temple. God sent Assyria to teach him a

lesson.

The Chronicler describes the capture of Manasseh by stating that he was captured with

hooks and bound with bronze chains. Some want to make this a figurative statement for

Manasseh being an unmanageable beast, since “j^oj denotes the hook or ring which was drawn

through the gills of large fish when taken … and is synonymous with jj … a ring which was

passed through the noses of wild beasts to subdue and lead them.”53

However, there is record of

Assyrian writings that relate that Ashurbanipal had other kings arrested and placed “their hands

49 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 482. 50 Bill T. Arnold, Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books, 102. 51 James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts: Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1969), 291. 52 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 635. 53 C. F. Keil, Keil and Delitzsch: Chronicles, 480. See also: Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary,

OTL, 1009; Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, WBC, 268.

Wingerd 15

and feet in iron cuffs and fetters.”54

This tells us nothing about Manasseh specifically, but it does

show that Assyria captured other kings “as if they were animals,” so exegetically, one should be

careful of reading too much into a description. Selman argues that “the use of a very similar

word to describe Sennacherib’s humiliation (2 Kings 19:28) … and the known Assyrian custom

of putting rings or hooks in their captives’ noses are in favor of the usual view.”55

Manasseh was

captured like any other enemy of Assyria.

But when did this happen? And what does Babylon have to do with Assyria (other than that

they were the next world power)? It is impossible to know for sure one way or another, but the

truth is that it did historically happen. “It has to be appreciated that both Chronicles and Kings

have been extremely selective in summarizing Manasseh’s fifty-five-year reign,”56

because much

can happen in fifty-five years that thirty-eight verses (twenty-eight unique verses57

) barely begin

to describe.

Babylon was a city in the Assyrian empire. After Esarhaddon died, Ashurbanipal became

king in Nineveh and his brother, Samas-sum-ukim, became king in Babylon. Samas-sum-ukim

rebelled against his brother and was finally defeated in 648 BC.58

Many scholars focus on this

rebellion “as the occasion for Manasseh’s capture” since it allows for Babylon to be a very

probable destination for his exile.59

However, at the same time, the mention of Babylon instead

of Nineveh could simply be the “result of an attempt to connect Manasseh’s exile typologically

with that of Judah later.”60

Some argue that the only way to solve the difficulty with Manasseh

54 James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 295. 55 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 522. 56 Ibid., 517. 57 2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles: 33:10-18 are unique; all the other verses in the two separate accounts are

at least almost identical to each other. 58 Bill T. Arnold, Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books, 111. 59 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 476. 60

Ibid., 482.

Wingerd 16

being taken to Babylon is to see it as a typological account of Judah’s later exile.61

However, it

could not have been the Chronicler’s primary goal, because if he truly wanted it to be

typological, he could have easily changed “Assyrians” to “Babylonians,” since the Babylonians

were the ones who took Judah into exile. While it is best to understand the Chronicler as writing

about a historical event, it is impossible, especially as modern readers look back—and even as

the original readers looked back—, to deny the fact that there is some parallel between

Manasseh’s Babylonian exile and Judah’s Babylonian exile.

C. Manasseh humbled himself. (12)

While all the returning exiles are probably rejoicing (internally?) that Manasseh—the enemy

of their religion, and the reason they went into exile—got what was coming to him, the

Chronicler decides to surprise them. He begins this verse with the phrase, “When he was in

distress,” which would immediately take the reader back to 2 Chronicles 28:22 where king Ahaz

also found himself in distress.62

King Ahaz, however, became more unfaithful to the Lord, which

would work to set the reader up for the same result in Manasseh’s case. However, Manasseh

does not do more evil.

Manasseh humbles himself. Japhet explains that verses 12-13 are full of verbs in the third

person singular63

which makes the narrative move quickly and helps the reader stay engaged.64

This marks the zenith of the main arc of tension in the story. It is important to note that

Manasseh did not just humble himself, but he specifically humbled himself before “Yahweh, his

God,” who is also “the God of his fathers.” Manasseh’s humbling of himself is “a standard word

61 William M. Schniedewind, "The source citations of Manasseh: King Manasseh in history and homily." Vetus

Testamentum 41, no. 4 (1991): 452. 62 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 522. 63 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1010. 64

Jerome T. Walsh, Old Testament Narrative: a Guide to Interpretation, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John

Knox Press, 2009), 54.

Wingerd 17

for repentance in Chronicles, but here strengthened by the word greatly (dam).”65 The Chronicler

wanted to show the returning exiles that no one was too far gone for Yahweh to restore if they

would simply humble themselves (cf. 2 Chronicles 7:14).

D. Manasseh spoke to Yahweh, and He heard. (13)

The most remarkable part of this whole story is “the apparent suddenness and extent” of

Manasseh’s conversion.66

This verse emphasizes specifically how Manasseh went about

humbling himself. He prayed to God. In fact, this meager reference to Manasseh praying to God,

coupled with the reference in 33:19, “has either spawned the composition of the apocryphal book

by that name, or at least provided the warrant for assigning that poem to this occasion.”67

This

prayer, which must be remembered as non-canonical, contains the words,

“[M]y sins exceeded the number of the sand(s) of the sea, and on account of the multitude of

my iniquities, I have no strength to lift up my eyes. And now, O Lord, I am justly afflicted,

and I am deservedly harassed; already I am ensnared. And I am bent by many iron chains,

so that I cannot lift up my head; for I do not deserve to lift up my eyes and look to see the

height of heaven, because of the gross iniquity of my wicked deeds.”68

While the above are almost assuredly not the words Manasseh prayed, the point is that God

heeded the humility Manasseh expressed, despite Manasseh ignoring Him previously (33:10),

and there were two results. First, God restored his kingdom. Second, Manasseh came to know

that Yahweh is God.

1. He restored Manasseh’s kingdom. (13a)

The first thing is that Yahweh restored his kingdom. “Just as Yahweh had brought against

Manasseh the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, [H]e is now the one who restored

65 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 482. 66 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 522. 67 Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, WBC, 268-269. 68

James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 634. Prayer of Manasseh 1:9-10.

Wingerd 18

Manasseh to his kingdom.”69

Second Chronicles 7:14 is referred to by some70

as the home base

for this statement of return to the land. God promised there that if His people would humble

themselves and pray to Him, then He would restore their land. This is probably exactly what the

author is doing, considering that this story is a historical commentary on 2 Chronicles 7:12-22.

At the same time, a point that cannot be overlooked is 2 Chronicles 7:15. There God had

said specifically that He would heed the prayers offered in Jerusalem. Manasseh was in Babylon

of Assyria. He prayed to God, and God still heard Him. This goes well in leading to the final

point of verse 13 and this whole section. Manasseh came to know that Yahweh is God, because

Yahweh heeded his prayer, even from a foreign land.

2. Manasseh came to know that Yahweh is God. (13b)

The fact that Yahweh heard and answered Manasseh’s request even from outside Jerusalem

is proof that Yahweh is the God. He is not bound to certain geographical locations. In addition, it

goes to show the decisive change in Manasseh’s life: he was breaking away from the worship of

other deities in order to focus solely on Yahweh.71

Perhaps this is also the intent of the author, to

show that Ezekiel’s prophecies in 23:49 and 36:25 were true, both specifically in Manasseh’s life

and also for the nation as a whole, coming out of exile. Idols would be gone, and the people

would worship Yahweh alone.

IV. Manasseh showed repentance. (14-17)

The new question the Chronicler must answer is whether or not Manasseh had truly

changed. It is easy to know that Yahweh is God, yet still not care about it. The Pharaoh at the

time of the Exodus had seen God’s power, seen God relent concerning plagues, but he still

hardened his heart against Yahweh (Exodus 8:15, 19; 9:27-34; 10:16-20). Would Manasseh do

69 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 482. 70 E.g. Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 522. 71


Wingerd 19

the same in his freedom from captivity? The Chronicler shows that Manasseh’s repentance was

real, by showing physical change effected by him in verse 14 and spiritual change effected by

him in verses 15-17.

A. He effected physical change. (14)

The Chronicler first explains Manasseh’s change of heart in a physical way. Manasseh

increased the defenses of Jerusalem, and fortified the army. “In Chronicles, faithful kings carry

out building projects.”72

Manasseh (not to mention the other kings) may have had wisdom

passage ideas in mind when he set out to improve Jerusalem’s defenses (e.g. Proverbs 11:11,

14:34). Especially considering the wickedness of his reign previously, Manasseh knew that

Jerusalem had no righteousness exalting it. He built the walls in a physical way, to show what he

hoped God would do in a spiritual way. He wanted protection. However, if the time of his

capture and release was around the time Samas-sum-ukim rebelled against Ashurbanipal (648

BC), then the rebuilding of the walls and strengthening of the army could go to show that

Manasseh was strengthening the city against a possible Egyptian invasion.73

At the same time, it

would show Ashurbanipal that even if Manasseh had sided with Samas-sum-ukim then,

Manasseh had no reason to hate Ashurbanipal, and now Manasseh would seek to help

Ashurbanipal. Regardless of the specific reasons, Manasseh helped better defend Jerusalem.

B. He effected spiritual change. (15-17)

Manasseh also showed repentance in a spiritual way. Two things were done by him

specifically to show his repentance, and a third shows the response of the people. These reforms

“reflect his recognition (v. 13) that Yahweh alone was God.”74

1. He removed false worship to outside Jerusalem. (15-16a)

72 Ibid., 483. 73 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 523. 74


Wingerd 20

First, Manasseh threw all the pagan worship outside of Jerusalem. “Manasseh’s religious

reforms represented a direct reversal of earlier policies (vv. 2-9), since each of the items removed

in verse 15 is mentioned in verses 3, 7.”75

Scholars want to argue that this contradicts the account

in 2 Kings where Josiah is said to destroy the idolatry, especially considering that even in

Chronicles Josiah is credited with the removal of idolatry. For example, “[The Chronicler] will

preserve evidence from 2 Kings that Amon perpetuated his father’s religious deviations and that

only Josiah removed them, even as he transfers back to Manasseh’s reign Josiah’s own reforms

(2 Kings 23:12, echoed in 2 Chronicles 33:15). … Narrative consistency was sacrificed in

creating religious models that created their own logic.”76

Must narrative consistency have been sacrificed? Chronicles tells us that Amon practiced

idolatry with the images his father made (33:22). Chronicles also explains that Manasseh did not

destroy any of the false religion, but rather just moved it outside Jerusalem (33:15). Chronicles

tells us that Manasseh restored temple worship (33:16a), but not that he destroyed the pagan idol

worship; he simply removed it. How easy would it have been for Amon to move all of his

father’s old idols back into the city after he began to rule?

2. He commanded the people to worship Yahweh. (16b)

Manasseh did not want to be the only one to worship Yahweh. Just as he had led the nation

into more evil than Canaan (33:9), he “now commands Judah to serve Yahweh the God of

Israel.”77

Manasseh probably thought of Proverbs 16:12 and 20:8 as he ruled for his last couple

of years (see next heading for explanation). He knew that a throne was established in

righteousness (cf. Proverbs 20:28), and he wanted his people to be righteous; he knew that a just

75 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 523. 76 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 636. (Emphasis added.) 77


Wingerd 21

king could disperse evil with his eyes (cf. Proverbs 20:7), so he commanded with his mouth that

the people serve Yahweh alone.

3. The people continued to use the high places. (17)

Manasseh’s repentance was real, but he could have done more. “[His repentance] does not

present a full reversal of the installations described in vv. 2-9. The abolition of the high places is

explicitly excluded by v. 17.”78

This goes to show that Manasseh was not perfect after he

humbled himself and repented. In fact, the fact that he did not completely destroy his idolatry

may show that he still had a hankering for it.

However, the people did not listen to him. This may be a sign that he was not a strong ruler,

but more likely is the case that since he had lived and led in evil for so long, and since the people

had not experienced God like he had, the six years of good that he lived could not change the

nation back to following Yahweh.79

Even though the people still sacrificed at the high places,

they only sacrificed to Yahweh. “According to v. 3 in this chapter, Manasseh had built high

places which his father Hezekiah had torn down. Now he lets them stand, though they no longer

serve idolatrous purposes.”80

V. Manasseh’s reign was summarized. (18-20)

All stories must come to a close, and the Chronicler gives his readers a summary statement

of Manasseh’s reign in these verses. It differs significantly from that recorded in Kings,

specifically in the “centrality of Manasseh’s conversion for the Chronicler’s understanding of his

78 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1010. 79 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 522. Six years being if the rebellion of Samas-sum-ukim in 648 BC

was the reason Manasseh was imprisoned in Babylon because he died in 641 BC. 80


Wingerd 22

reign.”81

Interestingly enough, his conversion is greatly elaborated and repeated twice82

because

his conversion is the main point of the whole passage.

A. The Chronicler wrote a summary statement. (18-19)

While Manasseh’s repentance is the focus of this conclusion, it is not the only thing the

Chronicler describes. Verse 18 describes the rest of Manasseh’s acts as being written in the

Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. “‘Israel’ here designates Judah, since the northern kingdom no

longer exists.”83

Verse 19 describes the source as being that of the seers. It is interesting that in

verse 18, those who spoke to him in the name of the Lord come from the source known as “the

Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.” Since 2 Kings 21 contains these words, it is highly possible

that this was exactly what the author used for his source. In verse 19, that coming from the

record of the seers, Manasseh’s repentance surrounds his wickedness, which goes to show that

the Chronicler was not out to change history. “The [C]hronicler granted [the presence of his

wickedness] and reinforced it with the qualifying ‘all’ and with the key term for unspirituality …

(lum ma‘al).”84

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament explains that “[M ʿal] occurs

most frequently in 2 Chronicles and in Ezekiel. … [It] is used to designate the breaking or

violation of religious law as a conscious act of treachery.”85

In Manasseh’s story specifically,

ma‘al “specifies the sin … of Manasseh as the building of sacrificial high places and the erection

of Asherim.”86

Manasseh is not painted as a good person to be imitated at all, but rather he is

81 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 524. 82 Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1011. 83 Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles, Hermeneia, 485. 84 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 636. 85 R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce K. Waltke, ed., “1230: מעל‏ ,” in Theological Wordbook of the Old

Testament, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1980), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 519. 86 H. Ringgren, “lum,” TDNT, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 463.

Wingerd 23

painted as a portrait of hope, that even the most unfaithful person in history can come to faith in

Yahweh and have their life turned around.

One more thing must be mentioned before turning to the final verse of the text. The

Chronicler pointed to documents for his story. These documents were around when the people

came out of exile, otherwise he would not have mentioned them. In fact, it is extremely

interesting that Kings reports that Manasseh killed the seers (21:10-16), but one of the

Chronicler’s sources is the record of the seers,87

which could prove that he really did have a

change of heart when he really was carted to Babylon, and the fact that some seers were able to

record it proves that he came to respect them since they worshipped the same God as he did at

the end of his life. The point is that Manasseh truly repented; this is not a case of the Chronicler

writing a fictitious story to make a parable about the people he was writing to.

B. Manasseh died. (20)

Even the most repentant human will one day die. It is part of the curse (cf. Genesis 5:5, 8,

11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31). There are several things that the Chronicler writes here that are worth

noting before bringing the exegesis to an end.

1. He was buried in his house. (20a)

There seems to be a stark contrast drawn between the burial of Manasseh and that of his

father in 32:33. Hezekiah was buried in the upper part of the tombs, while Manasseh was buried

in his house. The KJV translates 2 Chronicles 32:33: “in the chiefest of the sepulchers,” which

goes to show that there was a difference between Hezekiah and his son in death. While it could

simply be that Hezekiah was more greatly revered by the people, it could also be that Manasseh

just started a new trend.88

The main point remains regardless: he died and was buried.

87 Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles, TOTC, 524. 88

Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: A Commentary, OTL, 1013.

Wingerd 24

2. His son Amon inherited the kingdom. (20b)

Following the death of Manasseh, his son Amon takes the throne. The arc of tension in

Manasseh’s life was complete, as he was resting with his fathers, but a new question is here

raised. How will Amon compare with his father? That is the question for another time.

Wingerd 25

Conclusion:

Manasseh repented. It is as simple as that. The wickedest king in Judah’s history returned to

Yahweh. The structure of the story is amazing. The intro and conclusion are at the ends. Sin

follows the intro and righteousness precedes the conclusion. God’s discipline in leading

Manasseh to repentance, and God’s restoration of Manasseh to Jerusalem are in the middle. It

forms a beautiful chiasm89

emphasizing the centrality of God in the repentance of a sinner. It

parallels such New Testament passages as the story of Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10), the story of the

woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), the story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet (Luke

7:36-50), or most clearly, the testimony of the apostle Paul (Acts 9:1-18). In all cases, no one is

too far gone for Christ to forgive. Manasseh found grace from Yahweh in Babylon; any human

can find grace from Jesus wherever they may be living.90

However, it is not just initial salvation that this passage applies to. “This divine opportunity

may not be restricted to an evangelistic setting; it also belongs to Christian counseling. It is

significant that Jewish theology uses the metaphor of being born again for any occasion of

repentance.”91

89 Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 635. 90 Interestingly enough, one of the first passages I ever highlighted in my Bible was from this passage (33:10-

13), after I came to faith in Christ at a summer camp in 2010. I had grown up in church my whole life, hearing about

God, but I did not listen, even going so far as to curse God and call Him a fraud, calling myself an atheist at the

same time. Finally, when I was at my lowest, I humbled myself and God showed me that there is grace even for me. 91

Leslie C. Allen, New Interpreter's Bible, 637.

Wingerd 26

Bibliography

Allen, Leslie C. New Interpreter's Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes: 1 & 2 Chronicles,

vol. 3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994

Arnold, Bill T., and H. Williamson G. M. Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books.

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,

1983-1985.

Dillard, Raymond B. 2 Chronicles. Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 15. Nashville, TN: Thomas

Nelson, 1987.

Harris, R. Laird, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce K. Waltke, ed. Theological Wordbook of the Old

Testament. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1980. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.

Japhet, Sara. I & II Chronicles: A Commentary. Old Testament Library. Louisville, KY:

Westminster/John Knox, 1993.

Keil, C. F. Keil and Delitzsch Commentaries on the Old Testament: Chronicles. Grand Rapids,

MI: WM. B. Eerdmans, 1950.

Klein, Ralph W. 2 Chronicles. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012.

Myers, Jacob M. II Chronicles. Anchor Bible Commentary. Garden City, NY: Doubleday &

Company, Inc., 1965.

Pritchard, James B., ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts: Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969.

Ringgren, H. “lu^m.” In Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, edited by G. Johannes

Botterweck & Helmer Ringgren, translated by David E. Green, vol. 8, 460-463. Grand

Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997.

Schniedewind, William M. 1991. "The source citations of Manasseh: King Manasseh in history

and homily." Vetus Testamentum 41, no. 4: 450-461. ATLA Religion Database with

ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed November 11, 2014).

Selman, Martin J. 2 Chronicles. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL:

InterVarsity Press, 1994.

Walsh, Jerome T. Old Testament Narrative: a Guide to Interpretation. Louisville, KY:

Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.

Documents

The Most Unlikely to Find Grace