The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 385

~nd if our light is not improveo. it will be more tolerable for hel\then nntione than for us (Me.tt. _x_i. 21_-24; xii. 41, 42). 2. He was guilty of apostasy; they ~·e not. If the Amorit1es did these abominations, and served these idols it could e.t least be ee.id that they hlld never Ii ved under any other system. Goo. had suffered them to walk in their own way (.A.cts xiv. 16;. xvi i. 30). But in his evil Manasseh was guilty of a direct net of a.,ostasf, . He was going back from past attainments. He was violating a covenant ma.de _at Sme.1, _and r~peatedly renewed. It is a different thing for a heathen to commit the nle acts in which he has been brought up, and for a Christian to renounce ~hristinn traini~g and baptismal engagements, and do the same acts. 3. The corrup- twn <!( th? best is the worst. This is another principle which explains why Manasseh's abommat1ons are represented as worse than those of the Amorites. A nation, being once enlightened, cannot sin as the semi-ignorant heathen do. It develops worse and more virulent -evils. As a brute cannot sin in the same way as a man, or a child in the same way as an adult, so a nation enlightened by revelation can no lonaer sin as n nation does which has not this light. The higher consciousness reacts ~pon the sin and modifies it. There arc evils possible under a Christian civilization which surpass anything known in heathenism. lf our great cities show higher heights of virtue, they could &l.so reveal lower depths of vice than. Nineveh, Rome, Pekin, or Calcutta.. II. THE SEVERITY OF JERUSALEM'S PUNISHMENT, 1. The grounds of the punishment. These are twofold: (1) Manasseh's sins as above described. "Because Manasseh King of Judah hath done these abominations," etc. (ver. 11). In this sin of the king, however, the people shared. He "made Judah also to sin with his idols." King and people, therefore, must suffer together. There is a corporate responsibility, which involves a community in common guilt, whether the sin proceeds from the head or the members. (2) The entail of past transgression. "Because they have done evil in my sight ..• since tbe day their fathers came forth from Egypt, unto this day" (ver. 15). That entail would have been cut off by timely repentance, but, in default of repentance, the guilt continues to be handed down. This is another phase of corporate responsibility. The life of the nation is continuous, and one generation has to accept its responsibilities from another. We see the same P.linciple, e.g., in the handing down of national doubt. Christ views the Jewish nation of his day as charge- able with all the righteous blood that had been shed from the days of Abel downwards (Matt. xxlii. 35). 2. The character of the punishment. It would be: (1) Startling. "Such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle." Wars, sieges of cities, and captivities, with the horrors attendant on them, were common enough in those days, but this vengeance of God on Jerusalem would be so awful as to shock and amaze even those familiarized with such scenes. The very report of it would produce a stinging sound in their ears. 'l.'he fulfilment of the threat was partly under Nebuchadnezzar, but completely under the Romans (Matt. xxiv. 21). (2) Measured. "I will stretch over Jei·usaleru the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab." The idea. is that God would take strict account of J udah's sin, as already he had done of that of Samaria. The measuring- line and plummet are introduced for purposes of precision. God would measure exactly the transgression of the people; would note p~ecisely the degree of their d~viation from righteousness (cf. Amos vii. 7-9); and to this measured guilt the punishment would be proportioned. The reason of measurement was that judgment was no more to be qualified by mercy. The nation was to bear the full load of its iniquity. It is a terrible thing when God thus "marks iniquity" (Ps. cxxx. 3); for then the case of the sinner is hopeless. (3) Complete. "I will wipe Jerusalem a.s a man wipeth a dish," etc. "I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance," etc. Tue figure of cleansing out a dish till it is as eh-an as wiping can make it is e. very graphic one for the utter emptying and desolation that was to overtake Jerusalem. 'l'he city would not simply be humbled, as on many previous occasions, but would be completely destroyed, and the people led away by their enemies as a pre~ and ~ spoil. The predictions, as we know, were fulfilled to the letter. Manasseh nnght kill the men who uttered them, but he could not hinder their words from coming true; nay, his violence put a new seal on the certainty of their fulfilment. Ju the temporal calamities that were to overtake Jerusalem, we find a proof that verily there "is a God on. XXII, 1-20,) THE S~COND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 435