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2 Kings 21

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2 Kings 21 Overview

Manasseh begins a fifty-five-year reign and reverses Hezekiah’s reforms. He rebuilds high places, serves Baal and the host of heaven, places pagan altars in the temple, practices occult arts, makes his son pass through the fire, and sheds very much innocent blood. The LORD announces that Jerusalem will suffer judgment like Samaria because Manasseh has led Judah into extreme evil. Manasseh dies, and Amon follows the same idolatrous path until he is assassinated. The people punish the conspirators and make Josiah king.

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Before you read 2 Kings 21

Coming from

Chapter 20 ended with Isaiah announcing that Babylon would one day carry Judah’s treasures and descendants away.

In this chapter

Manasseh’s long reign institutionalizes idolatry and violence on a scale that makes the coming judgment increasingly irreversible.

Leads into

Chapter 22 introduces Josiah, who responds humbly when the book of the law is found during temple repair.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Kings gives Manasseh an overwhelmingly negative evaluation, but 2 Chronicles 33 adds an essential later episode: captivity, humbling, prayer, restoration, and partial reform. That later repentance must not be erased, yet it also does not cancel the national damage of decades of idolatry and bloodshed.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

A long reign can reshape a nation deeply for evil.

Truth 2

Manasseh corrupts even the temple itself.

Truth 3

Innocent blood stands alongside idolatry as a major reason for judgment.

Truth 4

Amon imitates Manasseh’s early evil without the later humility Chronicles records in Manasseh.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Second Chronicles 33 records Manasseh’s later repentance and restoration.

Connection 2

Jeremiah 15:4 explicitly names Manasseh’s deeds as a reason for Judah’s scattering.

Connection 3

Second Kings 23-25 shows that Josiah’s genuine reform does not erase accumulated national judgment.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not say Manasseh never repented; Chronicles says he did.

Keep this clear 2

Personal repentance does not automatically remove every temporal consequence of prior public sin.

Keep this clear 3

Do not use the chapter to teach that terrible sinners are beyond forgiveness.

Read 2 Kings 21 watching for…

How Manasseh reverses Hezekiah.

Idolatry placed inside the temple.

The emphasis on innocent blood.

The images used for coming judgment.

How Amon resembles Manasseh.

How Josiah reaches the throne.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-9Manasseh reigns and fills Judah with idolatry 10-16The LORD announces judgment because of Manasseh’s sins and bloodshed 17-18Manasseh dies, and Amon reigns 19-26Amon does evil, is killed by his servants, and Josiah becomes king

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.

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.

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.

And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

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.

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:

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.

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.

And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,

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:

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.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.

And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.

And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.

And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.

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2 Kings 21:20

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