was filled up.

His reign, despite temporary reverses and calamities, had been prosperous for his country, and he

left it in political circumstances far different from those when he had ascended the throne. Above

all, his history might have been full of most important theocratic teaching to the people. If it was

otherwise, we see in this only fresh evidence of that spiritual decay of which the prophets, in their

description of the moral condition of the people, give so realistic a picture.

Manasseh was only twelve years old* when he succeeded his father. According to our Western

notions, he would have to be regarded as merely a child.

* Possibly older sons of Hezekiah may have died, or there may not have been any by Queen

Consorts, who would have been qualified for succession to the throne.

But in the East he would at that age have reached the most dangerous period of wakening

manhood, before thought could have tempered willfulness, or experience set bounds to impulse. In

such circumstances, to have resisted the constant temptation and incitement to gratify every will

and desire, would have required one of strong moral fibber. But Manasseh was selfish and

reckless, weak and cruel in his wickedness, and scarcely respectable even in his repentance. When

the infant Jehoash acceded to the throne, he had the benefit of the advice of Jehoiada (2 Kings

12:2), and we know how his later and independent reign disappointed its early promise. But

Manasseh had not any such guidance. The moral and religious corruption in his grandfather's

reign, must, as we infer from the prophetic writings, be regarded as not only the outcome, but also

partly the explanation of the measures of Ahaz. This condition of things could not have been

effectually checked during Hezekiah's reign of twenty-nine years, especially amidst the troubles

and the disorganization connected with the Assyrian invasion. In fact, we know that even among

the intimate counselors of Hezekiah, there were those whom the prophetic word emphatically

condemned (comp. Isaiah 22:15-19; 29:14 -16; 30:1, 9 - 14).

In these circumstances the sudden re -action and the "counter-reformation" of Manasseh's reign, in

which he, apparently, carried the people with him, cannot appear altogether strange o r surprising.

Briefly, it was a kind of heathen ideal of religion in which various forms of national idolatry were

combined. The corrupt mode of Jehovah-worship on "the heights" was restored. To this were

added the Phoenician rites of Baal and Asherah, which Ahab had introduced in Israel, and the

Assyro -Chaldean worship of the stars. All this was carried to its utmost sequences. In the Temple,

on which Jehovah had put His thrice Holy Name, and which, as a firm and lasting abode in

contrast to the Tabernacle , symbolized the permanence of His dwelling in the midst of Israel, and

their permanence in the land, Manasseh built altars to the host of heaven, placing them in the outer

and inner courts. Nay, in the sacred "house" itself, he set up the vilest of idols: "the graven image

of the Asherah," whose worship implied all that was lascivious. Conjoined with this was the

institution of a new priesthood,* composed of them that had familiar spirits, and "wizards," while

the king himself practiced divination and enchantment.*

* The expression (...) [ "he made" in 2 Kings 21:6 (see margin of R.V.) implies their formal

** Soothsaying, or divination. I have preferred rendering it thus generally. In Rabbinic usage it is

understood chiefly of divination by observing the clouds (from (...) ); the expression for

"enchantment" is chiefly referred to the whispering of formulas of incantation, and to observing an

omen: the having "familiar spirits" refers to necromancy - either by conjuring up the dead or

cons ulting them; "the wizards" [lit., those who have knowledge] (...) are curiously explained in the

Talmud (Sanh. 65 b ) as magicians, who place in their mouths the bone of an animal called

Yaddua [(...)] when the bone speaks of itself. Comp. generally Leviticus 19:26.