- 135-
- This is the correct rendering.
** Comp. Schrader, u.s., pp. 366-372.
Holy Scripture tracing this restoration - not, as in the Assyrian inscription, to its
secondary cause "the mercy of the king" - but to its real source, connects it with the
repentance and prayer of Manasseh in his distress (2 Chronicles 33:12, 13). That in such
circumstances the son of Hezekiah, with the remembrance of the Divine deliverance of
his father in his mind, should have recognized the folly and guilt of his conduct, humbled
himself, and prayed unto the LORD* - seems so natural as scarcely to require
confirmation.
- "The Prayer of Manasseh" in the Apocr., is certainly of late date, and not even received
as canonical by the Romish Church. The curious reader is referred to Fritzsche, Handb.
zu d. Apokr., I., pp. 157-164, to the literature there mentioned, and to Fabricius, Cod.
Pseudepigr, I., 1100-1102.
Yet there is such, at least of his return to Jerusalem, in the historical notice of his
additions to the fortifications of Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33:14). And if his abolition of
the former idolatry, and restoration of the service of Jehovah, seem not consistent with
the measures that had afterwards to be adopted by his grandson Josiah, we have to
remember that between them intervened the wicked reign of Amon; that Manasseh seems
rather to have put aside than destroyed idolatry; and that the sacred text itself indicates
the superficiality and incompleteness of his reformation (2 Chronicles 33:17).
The events just recorded must have taken place near the close of this reign, which
extended over the exceptional period of fifty-five years. As Holy Scripture refers to his
sins as extreme and permanent instance of guilt (2 Kings 23:26; 24:3; Jeremiah 15:4), so,
on the other hand, Jewish tradition dwells upon the repentance of Manasseh and the
acceptance of his prayer, as the fullest manifestation of God's mercy, and the greatest
encouragement to repentant sinners. And, in truth, the threatened judgment upon
Jerusalem was deferred for more than half a century. So it was in peace that Manasseh
laid himself to sleep. He was buried in a garden attached to his palace, which
popularly bore the name of "the garden of Uzza."
- The Talmud (Sanh. 103a) says that to deny that Manasseh had share in the world to
come, would be to weaken the hands of penitents. As justice demanded that heaven
should be closed against him, the Almighty opened for him a hole in the firmament. In
the Midrash (Deba. R. 2) a legendary account is realistically given, first of the idol he set
up; then how, when he was being burned by the Assyrians, and found all his gods failed
him, he cried to the LORD; lastly, how the ministering angels had shut up all the
windows of heaven against his prayer, but God had bored for it a hole under the throne of
His glory for the encouragement of penitents to all time.
(^)