CHAPTER XVII.

KINGDOM OF JUDAH, THIRD SECTION.

MANASSEH TAKEN CAPTIVE TO BABYLON,

REPENTS

AND RETURNS. AMON DETHRONED. JOSIAH'S GOOD REIGN; THE BOOK OF THE LAW FOUND: SLAIN IN A BATTLE AGAINST PHARAOH NECHO, KING OF EGYPT. JEHOAHAZ DEPOSED AND CARRIED TO EGYPT.

B. C.

II. Chron. xxxiii-xxxvi. II. Kings. xxi-xxiii.

The kingdom of Israel was carried 697. captive to Nineveh in the seventh year of the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, whose history has already been given. Hezekiah was succeeded on the throne by his son Manasseh, who was unlike himself in every respect, and whose unrestrained wickedness and daring idolatry hastened the downfal of his people, so that even to the present time his memory is execrated by the Jews, and his reign deplored as one of the greatest calamities that befel the nation. Manasseh was only twelve years old when he began to reign, and something may be laid to this account; in the effects produced by flattery, and the possession of a throne at that early age, when the mind and heart are so susceptable of every impression, and when discipline and self controul are most requisite in forming

Y

the character of him who is destined to govern. Unfortunately, Manasseh's counsellors. were men of the worst principles and vices; bold and haughty, who set at nought the law, and disregarded the warnings of the prophets. Yet when the young king assumed the reins of government, he showed that his own character

was

even more cruel and depraved than that of his ministers. He restored the worst idolatry of the ancient nations of Canaan, and polluted the courts of the sacred Temple itself with altars to all the host of heaven, and even placed within its precints an image of Astarte, or Astaroth, called the queen of heaven, whose rites were celebrated with the most degrading vices.* To make the perversion of the people's minds complete, pretended wizards and enchanters were publicly protected, and became a part of the royal court; and as if to show the dreadful effects produced by this worship, and how it can stifle by its superstitious terrors, the strongest and holiest ties of nature, Manasseh made his son to pass through the fire in honor of Moloch, the god of the Ammonites, before whom human sacrifices were offered.

Whilst idolatry thus invaded the Temple, the city was no less a prey to violence: Manasseh shed torrents of innocent blood, and filled Jerusalem with slaughter. In his tyrannical persecution of all who opposed him, the prophets of * Astarte, supposed to be meant by a "graven image of the grove," in II. Kings xxi. chap. 7th verse.

the LORD were not spared; many were put to death, and it is to the daring iniquity of this prince, that tradition assigns the dreadful martyrdom of Isaiah, who during sixty years had prophecied at the court of Judah. Born of royal lineage, and connected yet more closely with Manasseh if we can trust to what St. Jerome asserts, namely, that the king had married the prophet's daughter, notwithstanding these claims, and in utter disregard of the sacred office which he filled, Isaiah was doomed to a cruel death; he was sawn assunder by a wooden saw. It is to this murder of Isaiah that St. Paul is supposed to allude in Hebrews xi. 37, where he says of the prophets, "they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain by the sword." The pretended accusation brought by the idolatrous king only added to his own guilt, for he made a religious regard to the law of Moses, the pretext for putting a prophet of that law to death. In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the prophet in vision declares: "I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne;" which the tyrant affirmed was contrary to the declaration in Exodus, "No man shall see me, and live." So deep is the hypocricy of hardened vice, that it seeks to veil its worst acts under the semblance of religion!

When Manasseh had filled up the measure of his impiety, he was punished as the kings of Israel had been, by being given into the power of his enemies. The king of Assyria, Esar

haddon, successor to Shalmaneser, sent an army to invade Judah: his captains were entirely successful, and Manasseh, while endeavouring to seek safety in a hasty flight, was taken alive, and sent loaded with chains to Babylon. Here he was thrown into prison, and suffered the bitter reward of his crimes. The hard lessons of adversity softened his heart; he repented, and humbled himself before God, and prayed with tears of deep contrition for pardon and forgiveness.* His repentance was mercifully accepted, and Manasseh being released from prison, was restored to favor and sent back to Judah, there to reign over his people, though no doubt with circumscribed authority. He proved by his after conduct that his remorse was real and lasting. He now put down idolatry, took away the idols, restored the Temple worship, and reigned as a just and wise prince: he rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem on the west side, by the valley of Gihon, which had been thrown down, and raised it to a greater height, and he strengthened his cities and placed captains of experience in them; he stored his fortresses with provisions, and every where the country resumed an appearance of peaceful prosperty.

In the Apocrypha, or collection of Books not acknowledged as canonical, there is one styled, the Prayer of Manasses, but it rests on no good authority; it was never extant in Hebrew, but appears to have been written in later times, probably because it is stated, in II. Chron. xxxiii. 18. now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to God, &c.,"behold they are written in the book of the kings of Israel."

Thus Manasseh endeavoured to efface the memory of his former sins: he governed with piety and justice, from the time of his return from captivity, and died at the age of sixtyseven, after a long reign of fifty-five years. He was succeeded by his son,

AMON.

THIS prince's reign was short; he followed the evil courses of his father before his repentance, and at the end of two years he was slain by a conspiracy of his own servants, and murdered in his palace. The conspirators were taken and put to death by the people, and his son Josiah, then a child only eight years old, was placed upon the throne.

B. C.

JOSIAH.

The history of this young prince is sin640. gularly touching and instructive. From his earliest years he was remarkable for humble piety, and a strict adherence to the Law, when all around yielded to the allurements of idolatry, and the flattering example of the court. The sacred historian describes him thus; "he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left."*

* David,

"his father,"-meaning Ancestor.