What does Manasses rebuild and put in the Lord’s temple, and what warning follows for Jerusalem and Juda?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Manasses rebuilds the high places his father Ezechias destroyed, puts altars for the heavenly host in both temple courts and sets his grove idol in the temple. The Lord’s prophets warn of evils upon Jerusalem and Juda, Jerusalem erased like a writing table, and the remaining inheritance handed to enemies as prey and spoil.

Chapter breakdown

Manasses begins to reign at twelve years old and reigns fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother is Haphsiba. He does evil before the Lord according to the idols of the nations the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. He rebuilds the high places his father Ezechias had destroyed, sets up altars to Baal and makes groves as Achab, king of Israel, had done. He adores and serves all the host of heaven.

Manasses builds altars in the Lord’s house, of which the Lord had said he would put his name in Jerusalem. He builds altars for all the host of heaven in the temple’s two courts. He makes his son pass through fire, uses divinations, observes omens, appoints pythons and multiplies soothsayers, doing evil before the Lord and provoking him.

Challoner’s note explains pythons as diviners by spirits. This is the note’s explanation of the term.

Manasses puts the grove idol he has made in the Lord’s temple. Concerning the temple, the Lord had told David and his son Solomon that he would put his name forever in this temple and Jerusalem, chosen from all Israel’s tribes. He would no longer move Israel’s feet out of the land given to their fathers, only if they did all he commanded according to the law his servant Moses commanded. They do not listen. Manasses leads them into doing more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

The Lord speaks through his servants the prophets. Because Manasses, king of Juda, has done these wicked abominations beyond all the Amorrhites did before him and has made Juda sin through his filthy deeds, the Lord God of Israel says he will bring evils upon Jerusalem and Juda that will make both ears of anyone hearing about them tingle.

The Lord says he will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the weight of the house of Achab. He will erase Jerusalem as writing tables are erased: erase it, turn it and draw the pencil often across its face.

He will leave the remnants of his inheritance and give them into their enemies’ hands, making them prey and spoil for all their enemies. The stated reason is that they have done evil before him and continued to provoke him from the day their fathers left Egypt up to the account’s present time.

Manasses also sheds very much innocent blood, until he fills Jerusalem up to the mouth, besides the sins by which he makes Juda do evil before the Lord. The account asks whether his remaining acts, all he did and his sin are written in the book of the words of the days of Juda’s kings. Manasses dies, described as sleeping with his fathers, and is buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Oza. His son Amon reigns in his place.

Amon begins to reign at twenty-two years old and reigns two years in Jerusalem. His mother is Messalemeth, daughter of Harus of Jeteba. He does evil before the Lord as his father Manasses did. He follows all his father’s way, serves and adores the abominations his father served, forsakes the Lord, the God of his fathers, and does not walk in the Lord’s way.

Amon’s servants plot against him and kill him in his own house. The people of the land kill all those who conspired against him and make his son Josias king in his place. The account asks whether Amon’s remaining acts are written in the book of the words of the days of Juda’s kings. They bury him in his sepulchre in the garden of Oza, and his son Josias reigns in his place.

The story inside

Manasses’s long reign begins with named age and mother and a reversal of his father’s destruction of the high places. He adds Baal altars, groves and worship of the heavenly host, then puts altars in the Lord’s house and both temple courts. The passage through fire and each named divination practice are recorded separately; Challoner explains pythons without adding a scene. The grove idol is placed in the temple where the Lord had spoken of his name to David and Solomon. The land promise has an explicit only-if condition of obedience to all commands, yet the people do not listen and Manasses leads them into greater evil than the destroyed nations. The prophets’ warning gives Manasses’s abominations beyond the Amorrhites and his making Juda sin as the reason for evils upon Jerusalem and Juda. The line of Samaria, weight of Achab’s house and repeatedly erased writing table describe the warning; the remaining inheritance will become prey and spoil for enemies because the provocation has continued since the fathers left Egypt. The account adds Manasses’s great shedding of innocent blood, his record reference, burial in his own house’s garden of Oza and Amon’s succession. Amon follows his father’s way, serves the same abominations and forsakes the Lord. His servants’ plot ends in his death at home. The people kill all conspirators and make Josias king; Amon’s record and burial close the chapter. The account does not give the conspirators’ motives or declare that no later action could ever affect the warning.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The rebuilding reverses named earlier actions. Ezechias destroyed the high places; Manasses rebuilds them and places altars for the heavenly host in both temple courts, as well as a grove idol in the temple. The source also recalls the Lord’s name promise to David and Solomon there. These particular objects and places explain the change without invented descriptions of the king’s inner life.
2
The land promise contains an only-if condition. Israel’s feet would not be moved from the fathers’ land if the people kept all the commands according to Moses’ law. They do not listen, and Manasses leads them into greater evil. The warning then states the deeds and continued provocation that bring the evils and enemy spoil. Keeping the condition and reasons preserves the chapter’s argument without adding an irreversible threshold.
3
The succession includes actions by different groups. Amon follows Manasses’s practices, but his servants kill him in his own house. The people of the land kill all the conspirators and make his son Josias king. The burial is in Amon’s sepulchre in the garden of Oza. These details show who acts and what follows without adding motives, Josias’s age or a description of the two kings buried beside each other.

Test your recall

How does Manasses reverse Ezechias’s work, what only-if condition accompanies the land promise, what reasons do the prophets give for the warning, and how do the servants’ plot and the people’s response lead to Josias’s reign?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 40555–40572
4 Kings Chapter 21 The wickedness of Manasses: God’s threats by his prophets. His wicked son Amon succeedeth him, and is slain by his servants. 21:1. Manasses was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Haphsiba. 21:2. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the idols of the nations, which the Lord destroyed from before the face of the children of Israel. 21:3. And he turned, and built up the high places, which Ezechias, his father, had destroyed: and he set up altars to Baal, and made groves, as Achab, the king of Israel, had done: and he adored all the host of heaven, and served them.
Lines 40573–40582
21:4. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said: In Jerusalem I will put my name. 21:5. And he built altars for all the host of heaven, in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. 21:6. And he made his son pass through fire: and he used divinations, and observed omens, and appointed pythons, and multiplied soothsayers, to do evil before the Lord, and to provoke him.
Lines 40583–40584
Pythons.... That is, diviners by spirits.
Lines 40585–40598
21:7. He set also an idol of the grove, which he had made, in the temple of the Lord: concerning which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son: In this temple, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever. 21:8. And I will no more make the feet of Israel to be moved out of the land, which I gave to their fathers: only if they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, according to the law which my servant Moses commanded them. 21:9. But they hearkened not: but were seduced by Manasses, to do evil more than the nations which the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
Lines 40599–40609
21:10. And the Lord spoke in the hand of his servants, the prophets, saying: 21:11. Because Manasses, king of Juda, hath done these most wicked abominations, beyond all that the Amorrhites did before him, and hath made Juda also to sin with his filthy doings: 21:12. Therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring on evils upon Jerusalem and Juda: that whosoever shall hear of them, both his ears shall tingle.
Lines 40610–40614
21:13. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the weight of the house of Achab: and I will efface Jerusalem, as writings tables are wont to be effaced, and I will erase and turn it, and draw the pencil often over the face thereof.
Lines 40615–40622
21:14. And I will leave the remnants of my inheritance, and will deliver them into the hands of their enemies: and they shall become a prey, and a spoil to all their enemies. 21:15. Because they have done evil before me, and have continued to provoke me, from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt, even unto this day.
Lines 40623–40634
21:16. Moreover, Manasses shed also very much innocent blood, till he filled Jerusalem up to the mouth: besides his sins, wherewith he made Juda to sin, to do evil before the Lord. 21:17. Now the rest of the acts of Manasses, and all that he did, and his sin, which he sinned, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 21:18. And Manasses slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Oza: and Amon, his son, reigned in his stead.
Lines 40635–40648
21:19. Two and twenty years old was Amon when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Messalemeth, the daughter of Harus, of Jeteba. 21:20. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasses, his father, had done. 21:21. And he walked in all the way in which his father had walked: and he served the abominations which his father had served, and he adored them. 21:22. And forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord.
Lines 40649–40661
21:23. And his servants plotted against him, and slew the king in his own house. 21:24. But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon: and made Josias, his son, their king in his stead. 21:25. But the rest of the acts of Amon, which he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 21:26. And they buried him in his sepulchre, in the garden of Oza: and his son, Josias, reigned in his stead.