The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 382

Ver&, 19-26.-Amon. "Amon was twenty and two years olrl when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerasalem." This is a short account of the brief and wicked reign of Amon the son of Manasseh. I. His REIGN WAS VERY SHORT. "He reign•ed two years," etc. The wonder is that such a man should have been perm\tt~d to breathe the brc~th of life. The sooner a bad king dies the better. 1. The better for his own sake. It restrains his own responsi- bilit.ies and the aggravation of hie guilt. 2. The better for his race. A fountain of moral poison has been dried up for him; the social air is less poisonous. II. His REIGN WAS VERY WIOKED. "And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them." Of the wickedness of kings we have had abundant examples in these sketches. It is, indeed, a fire that burns athwart the ages. III. THE REIGN WAS VERY TRAGI0AL. "And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house." How tragic the end of this man! His "servants," who should have guarded him, murdered him. "His own hoase," that should have been his castle of defence, was the place of his execution. In this verse the people : 1. Did }ustice to the traitors who murdered their king. 2. Did kind- ness to themselves in preparing the way for Josiah.-D. T. Vel'S. 1-9, 16.-The reaction under Manasseh. Light and dark alternate strangely in the later history of Judah. Overlooking the brief reign of Amon, Hezekiah alternates with Ahaz, and Josiah with Manasseh. 'fhe good kings a.re very good, the bad kings very bad. The climax of wickedness is reached in Manasseh. He bad a good father, as Hezekiah had a wicked one, yet he outstripped in daring ungodliness a.II the kings before and after him. I. His PRECOCITY IN EVIL. 1. His tendencies were evil. Manasseh'~ tender years when he became king do not wholly explain the strong bent he showed towards evil. He became king, it is true, when he was but twelve, a mere boy, with character unformed, and open to the seductions of wicked courtiers; but Josia.b, his grand.son, was only eight when he ascended the throne, and he showed a disposition the very opposite. Nor does environment explain everything. Josiah had far fewer advantages than Manasseh. Evil influences were round the young prince, but there ivern good ones also. Hezekiah his father would give him the best of training; his mother, Hephzibah, if it was she that suggested the prophet's allusion in lsa. !xii. 5, seems to have left a fragrant memory behind her; lsaL1h was still living to be his instructor, if he had been willing. to be guided as Josiah was (eh. xii. 2); there were also the remarkable mercies God had shown to his father and to the nation but a few years before. Contrast Josia.b's position, with Amon for a father, and the coantry in the state to which it was reduced after half a century of heathenism. There is no acconutin~ for these differences through heredity, environment, or in any other way which igoores personality. While as a rule the children of the good turn out well, and the children of the wicked badly, there a.re startling exceptiow; on either side. Some fn,m their childhood seem to be the subjects of an innate, virulent depravity, which only needs opportunity to break out into violent forms of evil. 2. His environment was evil. At the same time, it is to be admitted that the circumstances in which he was placed only afforded too much encouragement to the development of Manasseh's ungodly tendencies. It was undeniably a disadvantage to be so early deprived of a father's guidance, and saddled with the responsibilities of a throne. The courtly aristocratic party had never been in real sympathy with Hezekiah's reforms, and they doubtless eagerly embraced the opportmi.ity afforded by the accession of a young king of influencing him to a different line of oc.nduct. Throaghout the country also Hezekiah's reformation had been largely external, a:ii people were tired of the restraints which it imposed. The reaction which ensued has been compared to that of Queen Mary's reign after the death of Edward VI., or of the Restoration arter the Puri tau strictness of the Common- wealth. The upper and aristocratic classes of a country have seldom been marked by their fondness for earnest religion. The way of the world and fashion are far more ruling influences with them, and as at this time "Nineveh was to Western Asia what the Paris of Louis XIV. was to Europe," it can easily be understood that "not to imitate it was to be provincial and vulgar" (Geikie). 'l'he moment the heathen spirit got the 4.32 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [on. XXI, 1-26,