The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 404

mntion, which, though extensive enough, reaching to the furthest limits of Judah (oh. xxxi.1), does not appear to have been sufficiently intemive (see Isa. xxviii.-xxxii.). The heathen party which had the upper hand during Ahaz's reign, though suppressed by Hezekiah with Jsniah's help, was not destroyed. The spirit of idolatry, compelled to be quiet and in a mellSure hold itself in abeyance, was neither eradicated from the community nor greatly weakened in its energy-merely it was waiting a convenient opportunity to start up with renewed life and vigour. To this party belonged Shebna, the treasurer whose deposilion Isaiah demanded (Isa. xxii. 15---25). (2) The youth of Manasseh on acceding to the throne. Whether Hezekiah's only son (Josephus, • Ant.,' x. 2. 1) or not (Ewald, 'History of Israel,' iv. 206, note), Manasseh was only twelve years of age on assuming the regal dignity, and must have been born three years after the illness referred to in the preceding chapter (eh. xxxii. 24). His father's death, therefore, having thrown him into the hands of the heathen party at a tender and susceptible age, he was quickly perverted from the right way of the Lord. Even the example, teaching, and prayers of his mother, Hephzibab (2 Kings xxi. 1), tradi- tionally reported to have been Isaiah's daughter, were powerless to resist the corrupting influences of the statesmen and courtiers who surrounded him. "The young years of Manasseh gave advantage to his miscarriage; even while he might have been under the ferule, he swayed the sceptre. Whither may not a child be drawn, especially to a gairish and puppet-like superstition? A8 infancy is capable of all impressions, so most of the worst" (Bishop Hall). 3. In defiance of Jehovah. Not content with re-establishing idolatry in general, be proceeded to put a special affrout upon Jehovah. (1) He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts (outer and inner} of the house of the Lord (ver. 5), thus desecrating the city of which Jehovah had sai.d, "In Jerusalem shall my Name be for £,Ver" (ver. 4). (2) In the house of God, perhaps in the holy place, be set the graven image of the idol he had made (ver. 7), i.e. of the Phcenician Asta.rte, so dishonouring the city and the temple of which God had said, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name for ever" (ver. 7), and braving the Divine threatening Jehovah had pronounced against apostasy from bis Law and worship (ver. 8). That he "went eo far as to remove the altar from the forecourt of the temple, and the ark from the holy of holies" (Ewald), though not certain, is at least probable (cf. ver. 16; xxxv. 3; Jer. iii. 16). (3) He e.long with his people rejected the admonitions of Jehovab's prophets (ver. 10; cf. 2 Kings xxi. 10). Whether one of these was Hozai, who sur- vived Manasseh's reign and recorded its chief events (ver. 19), whether Isaiah lived into the times of Hezekiab's son, and whether Habakkuk was one of those who remon- strated with Manasseh, cannot be determined. Their message, however, bas been recorded (2 Kings xxi. 12-15)-a prediction of impending destruction for Jerusalem because of her sovereign's and her people's sins. Yet neither Manasseh nor his people would hearken. " They loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil." They refused to be warned of the perilous career upon which they had entered. "They bated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of his counsel; they despistid all bis reproof" (Prov. i. 29, 30). (4) He employed against the prophets and professors of the true religion the unhallowed instrument of persecution. '-' He shed innocent blood very much, till he bad filled Jerusalem from one end to another" (2 Kings xxi. 16). "He barbarously slew all the righteous men that were among the Hebrews; nor would he spa.re the prophets, for he every day slew some of them, till Jerusalem was overflown with blood" (Josephus, 'Ant.,' x. 3. 1). Not the first iustance in Scripture of a state persecution on account of religion (1 Kings xviii. 13); unhappily not the le.at (eh. x.xxiv. 5). III. lTs LONG CONTINUANCE. The worst king had the longest reign-fifty-five years. Perhaps: 1. To discover the true character of the nation's sin, to reveal the essentially evil ne.ture of idolatry, the inherent wickedness of such apo8tasy from Jehovah as Me.ne.sseh e.nd his subjects had been guilty of. For this reason God bore long with the antediluvie.n world, and still at times permits wicked men to cumber the ground through Jona years, while good men, on the other hand, appear to be cut off before their time. 2. Tu signalize the Divine forbearance, to make known to Manasseh and his subjects the Divine long-suffering, the desire on Jehovah's part that be and they should repent; as God still, for a like reason, exercises patience with wicked men (1 'Tim. i. 16; 2 Pet.  410 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF 'rHE ClIRONICLES. [oH. xnttr.1-2G,