The kings of Israel and Judah

King Manasseh

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned fifty-five years (2 Kings 21:1) · A mixed reign · 2 Kings 21:1 to 18; 2 Chronicles 33:1 to 20

Manasseh, the son of the godly Hezekiah, reigned longer than any king of Judah and was the most wicked. He rebuilt the high places his father had destroyed, set idols in the very temple, practiced sorcery, and shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end. Yet the book of Chronicles tells what Kings does not: carried in chains to Babylon, Manasseh humbled himself and prayed, and God heard him and restored him, and he ended his life seeking to undo the evil he had done.

And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.2 Chronicles 33:13 (KJV)

The most wicked reign in Judah's history

Manasseh did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen. He rebuilt the high places Hezekiah had broken, raised altars to Baal, worshipped all the host of heaven, and built pagan altars in the house of the LORD, of which God had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. He made his son pass through the fire, used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards, and set a carved idol in the very temple of God.

Kings adds the darkest note: Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. Ancient tradition holds he even killed the prophet Isaiah. He seduced Judah to do worse than the nations God had destroyed before them, and his long reign steeped the whole land in idolatry and blood.

The repentance in Babylon

Here the accounts diverge, and Chronicles preserves a wonder that Kings does not record. God brought the Assyrian captains against Manasseh, who took him with hooks, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him.

And God, astonishingly, was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God. The most wicked king of Judah became one of Scripture's most powerful pictures of grace: no one had sunk lower, and yet God received him when he truly turned.

A changed man's last years

The restored Manasseh set about undoing his evil as far as he could. He took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the LORD, cast them out of the city, repaired the altar of the LORD and sacrificed on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. The damage of fifty-five years could not be entirely repaired, and the people still sacrificed in the high places, though now to the LORD their God, but the king himself had genuinely changed.

Kings, focused on the coming judgment, records the sin and not the repentance, and notes that Manasseh's evil had sealed Judah's eventual exile. Chronicles adds the mercy. Both are true: the sin was real and its consequences remained, and the repentance was real and God received it.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Manasseh is the hardest and most hopeful of the kings to weigh. By his deeds he was the worst; by his end he was a trophy of mercy. Scripture holds both together and does not pretend the repentance erased the consequences, for his grandson Josiah's great reforms could not turn back the judgment his sin had earned, yet it insists that even he was forgiven when he humbled himself.

There is no clearer proof in the Old Testament that no one is beyond the reach of grace. The king who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood was heard when he cried out from a foreign prison. It points to the gospel of the true King, whose blood was shed not by the innocent but for the guilty, so that the very worst of sinners, the Manassehs of every age, might humble themselves and be received.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Hezekiah · Amon · All the kings of Israel and Judah