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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="6">VI.</abbr> REIGN OF MANASSEH. REFORMS OF JOSIAH. <abbr title="Second">2</abbr> Kings <abbr title="chapters 21 through 23">xxi.–xxiii.</abbr>   <abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chron.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 33 through 35">xxxiii.–xxxv.</abbr>   B.C. 698<abbr title="through">–</abbr>623.</h3> ON the death of Hezekiah, his son Manasseh succeeded to the throne at a very early age, having been born in all probability twelve years before his father’s death, B.C. 710. His mother, whose name was Hephzibah425 (the delightsome one, <abbr title="Isaiah">Isai.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 62">lxii.</abbr> 4), was descended from one of the princes of Jerusalem. His own name is remarkable, and was borne by no one else in the history of the kingdom of Judah. It is the name of the tribe second only to Ephraim in hostility to Judah, and has been supposed to have been given to him in remembrance of the fond hope of his father to unite the remnants of Manasseh and other northern tribes in a common worship and faith426. The accession of this king at the early age of 12 years was the signal for an entire revolution in the religious policy which his father had so consistently carried out. It has been suggested that the idolatrous party, which had sided with Ahaz, and had only been repressed during the reign of Hezekiah, now recovered its old ascendancy, and exercised a baneful influence over the youthful monarch. Whether this was so or not, the spirit of loyalty to Jehovah which Hezekiah had evinced was exchanged for a more general adoption of heathen modes of worship than had disfigured even the idolatrous days of Ahaz. Not only were the high places restored, but the worst enormities of Ahab were introduced into Jerusalem. Altars were erected in honour of Baal and Ashtaroth and all the host of heaven, even within the sacred precincts of the Temple (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 4, 5). The king himself, not only observed times, and used enchantments, and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 6), but even dedicated some of his sons in the fire to Moloch, and slaughtered others (<abbr title="Ezekiel">Ez.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 23">xxiii.</abbr> 37<abbr title="through">–</abbr>39). The cries of human victims offered in honour of this hideous deity of the Ammonites re-echoed throughout the valley of Hinnom, and the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were practised with impunity in that city where Jehovah had said that he would put His Name for ever (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 4). The consequent moral degeneracy was fearful. The old faith was everywhere neglected and despised. The altar of Jehovah was broken down (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 16), even the ark was displaced (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 35">xxxv.</abbr> 3), and so systematic was the destruction of the Sacred Books, that fifty years later the discovery of the Book of the Law was an event exciting wonder and astonishment (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 22">xxii.</abbr> 8), while the Sabbath, the sign between the elect nation and Jehovah, was polluted (<abbr title="Isaiah">Isai.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 56">lvi.</abbr> 2; <abbr title="chapter 58">lviii.</abbr> 13), and under the influence of the king and his idolatrous advisers, the people did more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 21">xxi.</abbr> 9). Meanwhile the voice of the prophets was not hushed. Heedless of the doom they incurred, the Lord’s true servants bore their faithful testimony against the deeds of the king. They predicted the coming of such judgments on Judah and Jerusalem, that whoever heard of them, both his ears would tingle (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 21">xxi.</abbr> 12). The line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab should be stretched over the capital of Judah, and it should be wiped as a man wipeth a dish, and its people should be delivered into the hands of their enemies (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 21">xxi.</abbr> 13, 14). These outspoken rebukes met with their natural reward. It was now, according to the ancient Jewish tradition, that the aged Isaiah was sawn asunder427, while of other less known but no less faithful servants of Jehovah, such numbers were murdered, that the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 21">xxi.</abbr> 16). Such a policy brought its inevitable punishment. Risings of the Philistines, Moabites, and Ammonites (<abbr title="Zephaniah">Zeph.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 4<abbr title="through">–</abbr>15; <abbr title="Jeremiah">Jer.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 47 through 49">xlvii.–xlix.</abbr>), were speedily followed by an invasion of the territory of Judah by the Assyrians (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 11). The captains of Esarhaddon, who had crushed the rebellion of Merodach-Baladan, invested Jerusalem428, took Manasseh captive, and carried him off to Babylon429, where loaded with fetters he was cast into prison. But in the solitude of his dungeon the Jewish king repented of the awful wickedness he had committed, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, who in His infinite mercy listened to his petitions for forgiveness. His defection was pardoned by Esarhaddon430, and he was permitted to return to Jerusalem (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 13). The lessons learnt in captivity were not forgotten by the restored monarch. He set himself to effect so much of a religious reformation as his previous character would allow. The worship of Jehovah was renewed, sacrifices were once more offered in His honour, and the heathen altars within the sacred precincts of the Temple were destroyed. But the change was naturally but partial (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 17). During his long reign of 55 years the evil he had done had sunk too deeply to be easily removed. The recollection of the innocent blood he had shed was never forgotten, and at his death he was not laid in the sepulchres of the kings, but in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, B.C. 643 (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 21">xxi.</abbr> 26). Amon his son now succeeded to the throne, and, after a short reign of 2 years, fell a victim to a conspiracy and was slain in his own palace. The people, however, put the conspirators to death, and secured the throne for his son Josiah, now only 8 years of age, B.C. 641. Young as he was, the new king displayed a remarkable spirit of loyalty to Jehovah, and surpassed even the best of his predecessors in his zeal for the true faith. In the <abbr title="twelveth">12th</abbr> year of his reign (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 34">xxxiv.</abbr> 3), B.C. 629, he commenced a great reform. In Jerusalem itself he removed the altars dedicated to Baal and all the host of heaven, and burnt the symbol of Ashtaroth at the brook Kidron, and the sacred horses that had been dedicated to the Sun. He then commenced a personal tour, not only throughout his own dominions, but throughout Simeon, Ephraim, Manasseh, and even distant Naphtali (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 34">xxxiv.</abbr> 6). At Bethel he visited Jeroboam’s chapel, and agreeably to the remarkable prophecy of the disobedient Prophet, uttered 300 years before431, broke down the altar and high places that king had set up, exhumed the bones from the sepulchres in the neighbouring mount, and scattered them over the altars. A little further, one of the sepulchres attracted his attention, and in answer to his enquiries, he learnt that it contained the remains of the old prophet of Bethel and his victim the man of God from Judah. On this he directed that the sepulchre should be spared, and the venerable relics carefully preserved (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 23">xxiii.</abbr> 15<abbr title="through">–</abbr>19). Returning to Jerusalem, in the <abbr title="eighteenth">18th</abbr> year of his reign he empowered a special commission to restore the Temple, and to levy contributions for this purpose. In the course of the repairs, Hilkiah the high-priest found a roll containing the Book of the Law, probably the Book of Deuteronomy, which he delivered to Shaphan the scribe, or royal secretary. By him portions were read in the ears of the king, who struck with alarm at its awful denunciations, rent his clothes, and directed that the Divine Will should be instantly consulted, that the wrath of heaven might not descend on the apostate nation. The High-priest and the rest thereupon sought the advice of a prophetess named Huldah, the wife of Shallum, keeper of the royal wardrobe, who resided in one of the sacred cloisters of the Temple. In reply, she assured them that the Divine judgments would certainly be fulfilled, not indeed in the reign of Josiah, whose early piety had found favour with Jehovah, but after he had been gathered to his fathers. This answer was in due course returned to the king, who instantly repaired to the Temple, and caused the awful denunciations on idolatry to be publicly read in the ears of the assembled people. The effect was very great. The people, conscience-stricken and appalled, made a solemn covenant, and promised to adhere thenceforward to the worship of the true God, and agreed to a still more thorough reformation. After a restoration of the ancient Levitical service in the Temple, a national celebration of the Passover was decreed, and was carried out with a grandeur and magnificence exceeding anything that had been seen on any former occasion (<abbr title="Second Kings">2 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 23">xxiii.</abbr> 21<abbr title="through">–</abbr>23). <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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