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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 Chatti," in the reign of Esarhaddon, whom that monarch summoned,
appears expressly the name of Minasi sar mat (ir) Jaudi, Manasseh, king of Judah.*
- We also recall here that Esarhaddon transported a fresh colony to Samaria (Ezra 4:2,
10).
But the capture of Manasseh by the Assyrian captains, and his deportation to Babylon,
recorded in 2 Chronicles 33:11, seems to have taken place not in the reign of Esarhaddon,
but in that of his successor, Asurbanipal (the Sardanapalus of classical writers), when his
brother Samas-sum-ukln, the viceroy of Babylon, involved among other countries also
Phoenicia and Palestine in his rebellion. And although the ordinary residence of
Asurbanipal was in Nineveh, we have not only reason to believe that after his assumption
of the dignity of king of Babylon, he temporarily resided in that city, but monumental
evidence of it in his reception there of ambassadors with tributary presents. Lastly, we
find the exact counterpart alike of this, that Manasseh was carried to Babylon with
"hooks,"* and "bound in fetters," and then afterwards restored to his kingdom, in the
Assyrian record of. precisely the same mode of deportation and of the same restoration
by Asurbanipal of Necho of Egypt.**
(^)