The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 375

the same kind whioh were the resnlt of hie about the year e.o. tl80 ( see ' E~onym Oanon,' inllnenoo on the people. Some culminating p. 139, line IS). Other" auts ' of Manasseh horror is required, something not touched were the fortiflcl\tion of Jerusalem "on the upon before, and something speoi11.lly attach- west side of Gihon in the valley,'' the ing to the monBJ'Oh himself. These con- strengthening of the defenoes of Ophel, and ditions are answered by supposing a bloody the ocoupation with strong garrisons of the persecution of the faithful to be intended. various fortresses within his dominions. He Josephus declares positively that l',IR.nasseh thus played his po.rt of tributary ally to "cruelly put to death all the righteous Assyria with zeal, placing the south-eastern among the Hebrews, and did not even spare frontier in au excellent condition to resist the prophets" (' Ant. Jud.,' x. 3. § 1). A the e.t1S&ults of Egypt. Manasseh outlived tradition, very widely received, declared Esarhaddon, and was for many years con- Isaiah to have been one of the victims temporary with Asshur-bani-pal, 'his Bein, (' Gemam Jebam.,' iv. 13; • Sanhedr.,' f. 103; whose inscriptions, however, contain no Tertullian, • De Patientia,' § 14; Augustine, mention of him. Most likely his no.me • De Civ. Dei,' xviii. 24, etc.). Stanley occurred on Cylinder 0, line 8, which is now says, "A reign of terror commenced against illegible (see G. Smith's' History of Asshur- all who ventured to resist the reaction. bani-pal,' p.81,line c). And all that he did, Day by day a fresh batch of the prophetic and his sin that he Binned, are they not order ,vere ordered for execution. It seemed written in the book of tha ohroniolea ot the as if a devouring lion were let loose against kings of J"udah 1 The" sin which he sinned" them. From end to end of Jerusalem were is probably his persecution, whioh was viewed to be seen trnccs of their blood. The nobles as his worst sin (see ver. 16; and oomp. who took their part were thrown headlong ch.lliv.4). from the rocky cliffs of Jerusalem"(' Lec- Ver. 18.-And Manasseh slept with his tures on the Jewish Church,' pt. ii.'p. 492). fathers, and was buried in the garden of his The persecution has been compared to that own house. We have already seen reason of Anglicans under Mary Tudor. Till he for believing that the catacomb of David had :filledJ"erusalem from one end to another wss full, and that Hezekiah was buried out- -i.e. •· till he had filled it with bloo,l and side it, though in the neighbourhood, on slaughter" (comp. eh. xxiv. 4)-beside his this account (see the comment on oh. :u:. Bin wherewith he made J"udah to sin, in 21). Manasseh seems to have made a new doing that which was evil in the sight of the family tomb in e. garden belonging to his Lord (see ver. 9). house (see ver. 26; and comp. eh. :u:iii. 30), Yer. 17.-Now the rest of the acts of It is quite impossible to fix its site. In the Xa.nasseh. Important additions to the garden of Uzza. Probably e.n addition to history of Ma.na.sseh e.re ma.de by the writer the old palace garden ; perhaps a purchase of Chronicles. •From him we learn that, made by Manasseh with the object of con- after prophetical warnings had been in vain verting it into a burial-ground. "Uzza," addressed to him and to his people (2 Chron. or " Uzzah," was a common name among xxxiii. 10), he was visited with a Divine the Jews (2 Sam. vi. 8; Ezm ii. 49; Neh, judgment, e.n Assyrian army under "cap- vii. 51; 1 Chron. vi. 29; viii. 7; xiii. 7-11), tains" being sent against him, who took and does not point to any definite individual, him prisoner, and carried him to Babylon- And Amon his son reigned in his stead. the cit, where Esarhaddon, the successor of "Amon" in Hebrew means "Nuraling,'' or Sennacherib, and contemporary of Manasseh, "Darling," and it is quite possible that ordinarily held his court. Here he remained Manasseh gave his son the name in this for some considerable time " in a.ffl.iction " sense. But it is also the ordinary Hebrew (ver. 12), and, becoming convinced of sin and form of the term (" Amen," or "Amun ") by deeply penitent for his manifold tre.usgref- which the Egyptians designated the greet sions, he tnrned to God in sincerity and god of Thebes, whom the Greeks and Romane truth, and being restored by the Assyriaus called " Ammon." It he.e therefore been to his kingdom, he put e.we.y the idolatrous thought by many that it was given by pradices and emblems which he had pre- Manasseh to hia son " in an idolatrous viously introduced. "repaired the altar of spirit." So Ilishop Colton in Smith's • Dic- the Lord" which had gone to decay, and tionary of the llilJle,' vol. i. p. 61, ani.1 r&-established, so fe.r as he could, the worship othera. of Jehovah (ver. 16). A special prophet, liosai, seems to have chronicled his sins and Vere. 19-26.-REIGl'I' OJ' AMON. Tht- his repentance in a work which survived short reign of Amon, the ~on and sncccssor the Captivity, and is t"ice quoted by the con,piler of the Books of Chroniclt:s (2 Cbron. of Manusseh, was distinguished by only two xxxiii. 18, 19). The subwissiou of Manasseh events: (I) his restoration of e.11 tho idola- to E11arhaddon is noted in the latter's a.une.la, trous and wicked pmoticcs which his fo.ther on. XXI, 1-26.J TitE SECOND BOOK OF TBE KINGS. 423