_MANASSEH REIGNS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS, AND IS GUILTY OF GROSS IDOLATRY. HE IS CARRIED CAPTIVE TO BABYLON; BUT, UPON TRUE REPENTANCE, IS RESTORED TO HIS KINGDOM. HE IS SUCCEEDED BY HIS SON AMON, WHO REIGNS TWO YEARS, IS SLAIN BY HIS SERVANTS, AND SUCCEEDED BY HIS SON JOSIAH._ _Before Christ 676._... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE WAS IN AFFLICTION, HE BESOUGHT THE LORD, &C.— The Jews have a tradition, that while Manasseh was at Babylon, by the direction of his conqueror, he was put in a large brazen vessel, full of holes, and set near a great fire; that, in his extremity, he had recourse to all those false deities to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PRAYED UNTO HIM— We have a prayer which, it is pretended, he made in prison. The church does not receive it as canonical; but it has a place among the apocryphal pieces, and in our collection stands before the book of Maccabees. The Greek church has received it into its book of prayers; and it i... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS THE PEOPLE DID SACRIFICE STILL, &C.— Rabbi Kimchi observes very well here, that though Manasseh's repentance might have been sincere, yet it was attended with a melancholy circumstance that ought to sound in the car of every one invested with power. His example and authority easily sedu... [ Continue Reading ]