William Kelly Major Works Commentary - 2 Chronicles 33:1 - 33:25

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William Kelly Major Works Commentary - 2 Chronicles 33:1 - 33:25


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2 Chronicles Chapter 33



Well (2 Chronicles 33), Manasseh follows this pious king who new has been called to sleep. The ways of Manasseh were first, a most painful outburst of all abomination, yet of the mercy of God at the last. For this very Manasseh, after his sin - after he had made Judah and Jerusalem to sin and do worse than the heathen - is taken by the king of Assyria and carried to Babylon, and there taught with thorns. But in affliction he humbles himself before the God of his fathers and prays to Him; and God heard and brought him back again. "Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah He was God" v. 13. This is a history most peculiar. Others, alas! had begun well and ended ill. He began as ill as any had ever done, and worse than any before; but he had a blessed end. He took away the strange gods and idols which he had himself set up, and the altars that he had made; and he repaired the altar and offered peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah. And "so Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house; and Amon his son reigned in his stead." But Amon did that which was evil, according to his father's beginning, not according to his end; "and his servants conspired against him and slow him in his own house, and made his son Josiah king in his stead."

Josiah was a king as remarkable for conscientious service to God as any man that ever reigned in Judah. How remarkable - not, alas! that a pious king should have an impious son, but that an impious father should have a pious son. This indeed was grace.