2 Chronicles 33

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Leningradensis (1008).[5][lower-alpha 1]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century).[7][lower-alpha 2]

• 2 Chronicles 33:1–9: 2 Kings 21:1–9[11]
• 2 Chronicles 33:10–20: 1 Kings 21:10–18[11]
• 2 Chronicles 33:21–25: 2 Kings 21:19–26[11]

LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars mostly in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BC) in Hecht Museum, Israel.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.[14]

• Cross reference: 2 Kings 21:1
• "55 years": according to Thiele's chronology, Manasseh became 'co-regent' with Hezekiah, his father, in September 697 BCE, then reigned alone starting between September 687 BCE and September 686 BCE until his death between September 643 and September 642 BCE.[15]

Two seals appeared on the antiquities market in Jerusalem (first reported in 1963), both bearing the inscription, “Belonging to Manasseh, son of the king.”[16][17] As the term "son of the king" refers to royal princes, whether they eventually ascended the throne or not,[18] the seal is considered to be Manasseh's during his co-regency with his father.[19] It bears the same iconography of the Egyptian winged scarab as the seals attributed to King Hezekiah, recalling the alliance between Hezekiah and Egypt against the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:21; Isaiah 36:6), and may symbolize 'a desire to permanently unite the northern and southern kingdoms together with God's divine blessing'.[20] Jar handles bearing a stamp with a winged-beetle and the phrase LMLK ("to the king"), along with the name of a city, have been unearthed throughout ancient Judah as well as in a large administrative complex discovered outside of the old city of Jerusalem and used to hold olive oil, food, wine, etc – goods that were paid as taxes to the king, dated to the reigns of Hezekiah (cf. "Hezekiah's storehouses"; 2 Chronicles 32:27–28) and Manasseh.[21][22][23] These artifacts provide the evidence of 'a complex and highly-organized tax system in Judah' from the time of Hezekiah extending into the time of Manasseh, among others to pay the tribute to the Assyrians.[17]

King Manasseh in prison praying to God (2 Chronicles 33:11–13). Bijbelse voorstellingen, Bijbelse figuren Literatuur. Hollstein Dutch, Maerten de Vos, 1141-1(2), dated between 1555 and 1612.

¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.

¹² Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, ¹³ and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom.

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.[24]

• "Hooks" or more specifically, "nose hooks"[25]
• "Bronze fetters" or "chains"[26]

Black basalt monument of Esarhaddon in traditional Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, which narrates his restoration of Babylon. Circa 670 BC. Exhibited at the British Museum, BM 91027.[27]

• "Babylon": Esarhaddon is recorded to spend much time and energy to rebuild Babylon as an effort to quell Babylonian aspirations of independence, after the city had been destroyed by Esarhaddon's father, Sennacherib, in 689 BCE. The restoration of the city, announced by Esarhaddon in 680 BCE, became one of his most important projects.[28][29]
• "He implored" or "he besought" (KJV), literally, "stroked the face", a phrase which also occurs in Exodus 32:11.[30]
• "Prayed to Him": This could be related to the "Prayer of Manasseh", a short work of 15 verses recording a penitential prayer attributed to Manasseh, which appears in some Christian Bibles, but is considered apocryphal by Jews, Roman Catholics and Protestants. Another work by the same title, written in Hebrew and containing distinctly different content, was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.[31][32]

Manasseh was thought to have joined a widespread rebellion (or at least been suspected of having supported it) led by Shamash-shum-ukin, the king of Babylon, against his brother, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, in an attempt to take the empire for himself, in 652-648 BCE.[33]

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.[35]

• Cross reference: 2 Kings 21:19
• "2 years": according to Thiele's chronology, Amon became king starting between September 643 BCE and September 642 BCE until his death between September 641 and September 640 BCE.[36]

²⁴ Then his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house. ²⁵ But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.[37]

The assassination of Amon is thought to be related to the rise of an extensive anti-Assyrian rebellion (recorded in Assyrian sources) organized in ʻEber ha-Nahar, the region between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea, against the rule of Ashurbanipal, and at the same time, an attempt of Egypt under Psamtik I to conquer Assyrian territories in the southern Palestine. The faction in Jerusalem that wanted to throw off the yoke of Assyrian, succeeded in killing Amon who was pro-Assyrian, even as worshipping Assyrian gods. However, Assyrian army soon arrived in Syria and Palestine and suppressed the revolt with 'all the usual severity' (all inhabitants were killed or exiled to Assyria'), so the forces in Judah, who wanted to prevent a military clash with Assyria, exterminated the anti-Assyrian nobles.[38]