“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah.”
Twelve. Being born three years after his father’s recovery. — Fifty. Including the years of captivity.
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”
Idols. Hebrew, “abominations,” (Calmet) as their worship was attended with the greatest infamy and dissolution, and was in itself the source of God’s chastisements. (Haydock)
“For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.”
Groves. Hebrew Ashera, “the grove,” or the idol of Astarte, (Calmet) as both were worshipped. (Haydock) — Achab, whom he imitated also in spilling the blood of the saints. (Menochius)
“And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.”
Altars, in honour of the sun, moon, and stars, (Haydock) in the courts of the priests and of the people, 2 Paralipomenon xxxiii. 4.
“And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”
Fire, for purification, or as a holocaust to Moloch. See chap. xvi. 3. — Divination, or, “he observed times,” Arabic. (Montanus) — Omens. Protestants, “used enchantments,” (Haydock) by means of brass or of serpents, &c. (Calmet) — Septuagint agrees with the Vulgate, “he took notice of birds.” (Haydock) — Pythons. That is, diviners by spirits (Challoner) particularly by Apollo. He authorized and encouraged such ventriloquists, &c., Leviticus xix. 31. — Soothsayers, who inspected the entrails of victims, to foretell future things. (Calmet) — Protestants, “He dealt with familiar spirits and wizards.” (Haydock)
“And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:”
Of the grove. Hebrew, “a graven thing of Ashera,” the grove or Astarte, (Haydock) ver. 3. This was an engraving in sculpture of a sacred grove. (Sa) (Chap. xxiii. 6.) (Tirinus) — My name. I alone will be adored, and there allow an altar to be erected. (Haydock)
“Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.”
Of Michol. They were the sons of Merob, who was married to Hadriel; but they are here called the sons of Michol, because she adopted them, and brought them up as her own: (Challoner; Chaldean; St. Jerome, Trad.) or Merob was called Michol; (Sa) or, what seems most probable, from the word she bore being used, (Cajetan) and as two sisters would hardly have the same name, (Haydock) Michol has crept into the text instead of Merob. (Capel.; Salien; Calmet) (1 Kings xxv. 44.)
“But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.”
More, because they had received more favours and instructions from above. (Worthington)
“And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,”
Prophets, Joel, Osee, Amos, Nahum, Jonas, Abdias, Micheas, and particularly by Isaias, who was related to the king. (Tirinus) — Tradition informs us, that Manasses was so irritated, that he ordered Isaias to be slain with a wooden saw, (St. Augustine, City of God xviii. 24.) for greater torment; (Calmet) and his companions were daily executed, Josephus, [Antiquities?] x. 3. — Isaias (xxii. 13.) seems to pronounce his sin irremissible, (Calmet) or that he should not, at least, escape the punishment of it, as long as he lived. But we are assured that the eyes of Manasses were at last opened by adversity, and that he performed many laudable things after his return from captivity; (2 Paralipomenon xxxiii.) so that the latter part of his reign resembled that of his father; though the beginning had been like that of the impious Achab. His coming to the throne so soon, before his pious father could have time to impress upon his mind the truths of salvation, had nearly proved his ruin. The sins of my youth, and my ignorances, remember not, O Lord, Psalm xxiv. 7. (Haydock)
“Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:”
Doings. Hebrew, “idols,” ver. 2. See chap. xvii. 12. (Haydock)
“Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.”
Tingle, through astonishment, as if he had been stunned with too loud a noise, 1 Kings iii. 11. (Calmet)
“And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. wiping: Heb. he wipeth and turneth it upon the face thereof”
The line, or rope, to pull down the walls, Lamentations ii. 8., (Calmet) and 2 Kings xvii. 13. Jerusalem, which has imitated Samaria in sinning, shall experience the same fate; the same weight of punishment shall fall upon the royal family, as upon the house of Achab. (Haydock) — The prophets frequently entitle their menaces a weight, or burden, Isaias xiii. 1. (Menochius) — Septuagint have, “the balance of the house,” &c., as if God had weighed all the good and evil, and would now reward the people accordingly, (Haydock) with judgment. (Du Hamel) — Table, or board, covered with wax. The ancients were accustomed to write in this manner with a style which was sharp at one end and blunt at the other. Altera pars revocat quicquid pars altera fecit. (Ænig. Symponii.) When the wax was rendered smooth, no vestige of the former writing could appear, and God threatens to destroy Jerusalem, in like manner. Hebrew is variously translated. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “I will wipe out Jerusalem as an alabaster vase is wiped, and turned downwards.” Protestants, “as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” (Haydock) — Often. 1. Under Manasses; 2. under Josias and Joachaz; 3. under the last kings of Juda, 2 Paralipomenon xxiii., &c. (Tirinus)
“And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;”
Leave. Septuagint, “with horror,” apeasomai (Haydock) “I will cast off.” So Chaldean, Syriac, &c. — Remnants. Juda, &c., who shall be treated like the ten tribes. (Calmet) — All shared in the punishment, though some preserved the true religion, Psalm lxxxviii. 35. (Worthington)
“Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.”
Again: it is not certain at what time. Some think it was towards the beginning of David’s reign, since he leads his men to battle; or the Philistines might have made an irruption into his dominions, about three years after the death of Absalom. (Calmet) — David had offered to put himself at the head of the army, against his son, chap. xviii. 2. (Haydock) — Faint. He was now sixty-four years old. (Salien)
“Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. from: Heb. from mouth to mouth”
Mouth. Chaldean, “extremity.” All was full of blood, and impure idols, ver. 11. — Besides, (absque) “without” mentioning his other scandalous sins of idolatry.
“Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”
Sinned. It is rather wonderful that his repentance is not here noticed; but we find it mentioned [in] 2 Paralipomenon xxxiii. 12. (Haydock) — He was probably taken prisoner by Thartan, general of Sargon, or Asarhaddon, who had reunited the two kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon, Isaias xx. 1. In prison Manasses composed a penitential prayer, which is not absolutely rejected by the Church, but left in the rank of Apocryphal writings; (Calmet) the authority of which is not clearly ascertained. (Haydock) — The Greek church admits this prayer into her Euchologium, (Calmet) or Office-book. (Haydock) — Being liberated, probably by Saosduchin, Manasses did all things well, only he left the high places, where the people had been accustomed to sacrifice to the Lord. Hozai wrote his history, 2 Paralipomenon xxxiii. 19.
“And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.”
Oza, a private man, to whom it had belonged; (Menochius) or the place where the Levite had been punished for touching the ark; (1 Kings vi. 8.) or, in fine, the garden to which king Ozias had retired after he became a leper. (Calmet) — It is said, that Manasses chose this place for his tomb out of humility. (Grotius)
“Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.”
Adeodatus, the son of Forrest. So it is rendered in the Latin Vulgate, by giving the interpretation of the Hebrew names, which are Elhanan, the son of Jaare. (Challoner) — We should translate all the proper names, or none; as the present mode is extremely perplexing. Adeodatus might therefore be rendered, “God given;” (Dieudonné, as the French have it, though they will not translate Saltus, but leave Jaare) or, if Adeodatus must remain, as it is sometimes a proper name, why may not Saltus? A mere English reader might suppose that Forrest was a Hebrew name, and, with Swift in jest, maintain the high antiquity of our language. (Haydock) — Regularly proper names should be retained. (Calmet) — But the learned have often chosen to give the import of foreign names, in the language in which they have been writing. See Du Thou’s History. Thus Dubois is styled Sylvius; Newman, Neander; &c. — An embroiderer. Protestants make this a part of the man’s name, “Jaare-oregim.” Septuagint, “the son of Ariorgeim.” In 1 Paralipomenon xx, no notice is taken of his profession. (Haydock) — That passage will evince that Elhanan is not the same with David, as some would infer from the mention of Goliath’s death, but the son of Jair, uncle of Joab, (chap. xxxiii. 24.) who was born at Bethlehem, though the verse in Paralipomenon would insinuate less correctly, that the giant’s name was Lechem, thus, “Elehanan….slew Lechem, the brother,” &c., as the copyist had written ath instead of bith. (Calmet) — Our version has not this mistake: “Adeodatus, the son of Saltus, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath, the Gethite,” &c., 1 Paralipomenon xx. 5. (Haydock) — “It would be difficult to find a passage more disfigured than the present; and, without the help of the Paralipomenon, it would be impossible to make it out.” (Calmet) — Kennicott makes a similar remark. (Diss. i. and ii.) But he believes that the Book of Chronicles, though the latest, and usually the most corrupt, of the Old Testament, is here perfectly correct; and that the passage before us is strangely corrupted, “Jaare Oregim, a Bethlehemite,” being placed instead of , …”Jaor slew Lahmi,” as he thinks that oregim, “weavers,” has been inserted from the line below, p. 79. Josephus ([Antiquities?] vii. 10.) relates this transaction as follows, “When the king had sent a fresh army against them, Nephan, his relation, displayed the greatest valour. For engaging in a single combat with the bravest man of the Philistines, and killing his antagonist, he caused the rest to turn their backs, and many of the enemy fell in that battle.” Thus he evades all the difficulty, adding much out of his own head; and by Nephan, designating Elehanan, the son of his (Joab’s) uncle, (chap. xxiii. 24.) or Dodo, a word which the Vulgate renders patrui ejus, “his paternal uncle,” though it hath a wider signification, and denotes other relations. Hence, as Joab was the nephew of David, this brave man might be in the same degree, and born of one of the children of Isai; or, perhaps, Josephus infers that he was a kinsman of David, because he was of the same city. (Haydock) — Goliath. He might have the same name as his brother, who had been slain by David forty-three years before; (Salien) or the title of brother may only signify, that this giant resembled the former in size and strength, Proverbs xviii. 9. — Beam. See 1 Kings xvii. 7. (Calmet)
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.”
Done, in his youth, flattering himself that he should also repent, when he had gratified his passions, (Glycas) but God presently chastised this presumption, after suffering him to reign only two years. (Tirinus)
“And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.”
Of David, who was present, though it does not appear that he slew any of the four. (Calmet)