283, note 112, and pp. 685, 686.

As we have already marked, these sins were national, and this in a more special sense than merely

the identification of a nation with its rulers and their public acts. As this condition of the people

was not exceptional, but the outcome of a long course, so the Divine judgments were to be

cumulative, extending back from the first beginning to the present stage of guilt (2 Kings 21:15).

And commensurate not only with the sin of Israel, but with their utter unfaithfulness to the

meaning and purpose of their calling, would be the coming evil.*

* Kings 21:12. The same expression for terrifying news occurs in 1 Samuel 3:11; Jeremiah 19:3.

In the figurative la nguage of Scripture, the desolation of Jerusalem would be as complete as that of

Samaria and of the house of Ahab - as it were, a razing to the ground, so that the builder might

stretch over it the measuring line and apply the plummet, as if not anything h ad stood there (comp.

Isaiah 34:11; Lamentations 2:8; Amos 7:7-9). Nay, Jerusalem would be thoroughly emptied and

cleansed, as a dish that was wiped, and then turned upside down.*

* Other explanations of the figure - of which several have been offered - seem artificial.

For Judah - the remnant of what had been the inheritance of God - would be cast off, and

surrendered to their enemies for "a prey and a spoil" (2 Kings 21:12-14). Here the history of

Manasseh abruptly breaks off in the Book of Kings, to be resumed and supplemented in that of

Chronicles (2 Chronicles 33:11- 20). This in itself is noticeable, first, as casting fresh light on the

"prophetic" character of the history as presented in the Books of the Kings, and, secondly, as

attesting the historical value of those of Chronicles. In the Books of the Kings, the writer, or

compiler, gives not the annals of a reign, nor the biographies of kings and heroes; but groups

together such events as bear on the Divine issues of this history, in relation to the calling of Israel.

This explains not only the brief summary of the longest reign in Judah or Israel - that of Manasseh,

which lasted fifty-five years - but specifically the omission of what he had done for the defense of

Jerusalem and Judah (2 Chronicles 33:14), as well as of his captivity, his repentance, return to his

capital, and reformation. For these defenses of Judah were useless; the captivity of Manasseh was

temporary; and his reformation was, as we shall see, only superficial. But rarely has the skepticism

of a certain school of critics received more severe rebuke than in regard to the doubts which on

internal grounds have been cast - and that not long ago* - on the credibility of the narrative in 2

Chronicles 33:11- 20.

* But it is only fair to add, that the doubts about Manasseh's deportation have not been shared by

the more cautious critics of that school, although they deny the second part of the narrative -

although with no better reason.

It was called in question for this reason, that, in view of the silence of the Book of Kings, there

was not ground for believing that the Assyrians exercised supremacy in Judah - far less that there

had been a hostile expedition against Manasseh; and because, since the residence of the Assyrian

kings was in Nineveh, the reported transportation of Manasseh to Babylon (ver. 11) must be

unhistorical. To these were added, as secondary objections, that the unlikely account of a king

transported in iron bonds and fetters was proved to be untrustworthy by the still more incredible

notice that such a captive had been again restored to his kingdom. Eminently specious as these

objections may seem, they have been entirely set aside by the evidence from the Assyrian

inscriptions, the preservation of whose testimony is here specially providential. Unfortunately, the

lessons which might have been learned in regard to skepticism on "internal grounds" have had

little influence.

Of the supremacy of Assyria over Judah in the time of Manasseh, there cannot be any doubt,

notwithstanding the silence of the Book of Kings. In a list of twenty-two subject kings of "the land