2 Kings 21
Contents:
1. King Mannasseh begins His Reign Badly!
Rabbi Asi Encounters King Manasseh.
King Mannasseh Sins and Repents.
Idolatry and the Temple.
The Nazi Pact with Satan!
The Consequence of Sin.
King Manasseh in Wikipedia.
King Manasseh in the Book of Chronicles.
King Manasseh in Josephus.
King Amon of Judah.
2-Kings 21
1. King
Mannasseh
begins His Reign Badly.
[2-Kings 21:1] Manasseh was twelve years
old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His
mother's name was Hephzibah.
Manasseh may mean "forget, remove, place elsewhere, represent, etc."
Menasseh can also mean Responsible Representation. The name would therefore
symbolize a guiding principle of self-government that resulted in the USA coming
into being.
See:
http://britam.org/Proof/Joseph/joDemo.html
Hephzibah means "Will of the Almighty" or "My Desire is in Her".
Manasseh was the son of King Hezekiah of Judah. It appears that Manasseh had
been born after the last remnant of the northern Ten Tribes had been exiled by
the Assyrians. The Tribe of Manasseh had been one of the leading tribes and
perhaps in practice it had been the most important, even more than Ephraim.
Hezekiah named his son and heir to his throne in remembrance of the Ten Tribes
of Israel.
[2-Kings 21:2] And he did evil in the
sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD
had cast out before the children of Israel.
[2-Kings 21:3] For he rebuilt the high
places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal,
and made a wooden image [Asheirah],
as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and
served them.
The "High Places" in Hebrew are "Bamot". These were elevated
altars. Some of these had been intended to worship God Almighty in an Unorthodox
manner outside of recognized convention. Pagan practices had accrued to them.
Others had been built with idolatrous intention from the beginning (Daat
Mikra)..
King Hezekiah had destroyed all of them.
Manasseh rebuilt them.
Manasseh went in the pathway of Ahab. King Ahab of the northern Kingdom of
Israel had set up an Asheirah in addition to the two golden bull calves that had
already existed since the time of Jeroboam ben Nebat. So too, Menasseh set up an
Asheirah in addition to the altars to Baal he had already built (Me'am Loez).
Manasseh is compared to King Ahab of Israel. The Sages said that Manasseh
reigned for 55 years out of which he was a sinner for the first 22 years and
then he repented and reigned for another 33 years.
The 22 years in which Manasseh sinned parallel the 22 years in which Ahab ruled
over Israel.
The Sages said that in the time of Manasseh the attractions of idolatry were
very great and in some respects almost irresistible.
The situation, social attitude, and common psychology was different from what it
is today. In some ways they may have been at a higher level than we are today
but otherwise they were not.
Rabbi Asi Encounters King
Manasseh.
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 21) tells us about
Rabbi Asi
who was teaching the Book of Kings. When he finished the section just before
that concerning Manasseh, he said:
"Tomorrow we will deal with our colleague, Manasseh".
By this he meant that Manasseh had doubtless learned much Torah from his father
the righteous King Hezekiah. Nevertheless despite his learning he had gone wrong
and turned away from righteousness. Manasseh could therefore serve as an example
and warning to the Sages not to be too sure of themselves. Manasseh at one stage
had been like them. That night Manasseh appeared to Rabbi
Asi
in a dream.
"Who are you to consider me a colleague of yourself and your father, as you
referred to me?"
Manasseh then asked him a question on a legal-ritual matter they had been
discussing in the House of Study.
Rabbi Asi
could not answer. He requested that Manasseh tell him the answer so that he
could quote from him and attribute the source to him.
Manasseh told him the solution.
Rabbi Asi
then queried Manasseh,
"Since you know so much how did you come to err in matters of idolatry?"
Menasseh
replied:
"If you had have been there [in my time] you would have lifted up the skirt of
your cloak to make it easier to run after me and do as I did!"
King
Mannasseh
Sins and Repents.
Idolatry and the Temple.
[2-Kings 21:4] He also built altars in
the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, 'In Jerusalem I will put My
name.'
King Menasseh built altars to idols in the Holy City of Jerusalem. This was a
worse crime than if he have done the same thing somewhere else. Jerusalem is the
Holy City. It is the center of the world. It is the place where the God of
Israel promised that HE would be most approachable from.
cf. The answer of God to the supplication of King Solomon:
[1-Kings 9:3] And the LORD said to him:
'I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I
have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever,
and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
[2-Kings 21:5] And he built altars for
all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
The Temple in effect consisted of a building divided into three sections of
ascending Holiness. In addition to the building there were two courtyards
divided by a wall with a connecting gateway. The main altar was in the inner
courtyard in front of the building. Most of the activity took place in the
courtyards. The whole Temple complex was surrounded by a wall. The Temple
Complex with its wall was on the Temple Mount which was surrounded by another
wall.
[2-Kings 21:6] Also he made his son
pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted
spiritists
and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.
This is the practice of Molech.
The grandfather of Menasseh, King Ahaz had also been guilty of this practice.
The Ten Tribes after their exile continued to practice it in a diluted form
until recently:
See:
Moloch Sacrifice and the Beltain
of Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia.
http://www.britam.org/Kings/2Kings16.html#Moloch
There were two main forms to this Moloch worship.
One was simply causing the person or animal offered to pass through
the flame without actually burning them. This is the more modern West European
practice that might still go on?
The other was actually burning the victim alive.
The Commentators are divided as to whether Manasseh actually offered up one of
his sons as a human sacrifice or merely caused him to pass through the flames.
The Prophet Jeremiah lived after the reign of Manasseh but his exhortations
appear to have referred to the time of Manasseh as well as that of his own time:
Jeremiah 7:
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,' says the LORD. 'They
have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute
it. 31 And they have built the high places of
Tophet,
which is in the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom,
to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor
did it come into My heart.
32 'Therefore behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, 'when it will no more
be called Tophet,
or the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom, but the Valley of
Slaughter; for they will bury in
Tophet until there is no room.
Jeremiah 19:
4 'Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have
burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the
kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the
innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons
with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did
it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD,
'that this place shall no more be called
Tophet
or the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom, but the Valley of
Slaughter.
See the Brit-Am Commentary
to this verse:
http://www.britam.org/Jeremiah16to20.html
The Druids in the West practiced human sacrifice.
In Scandinavia, the old Scandinavian religion contained human sacrifice. The
Norse sagas and German historians relate of this, e.g. Temple at Uppsala in
Sweden whose constriction in some ways is reminiscent of the Temple in
Jerusalem.
The rationale behind human sacrifice was that the victim should die for the sake
of the community or the individual making the offering.
Today, the practice of abortion is defended along similar lines.
The Nazi Pact with Satan!
The Nazis killing of the Jews was a form of human sacrifice.
Ruth Schechter wrote on this.
She also described how the Culture of the West is Hebraic culture in many ways.
Ruth Schechter from the University of Beer- Sheva conducted researches and
wrote a number of books in Hebrew concerning the common denominator between
Jewish Philosophy and Western Thought, especially in regards to that of the
British Isles.
"Brit-Am Now"-141: Geneva
#2. Calvinists
http://britam.org/now/now141.html
I was introduced to the works of Ruth Schechter by John Hulley who in turn had
borrowed them from Yerocham Levitt a lecturer in Philosophy. These works are in
Hebrew but they are interesting, well-researched and original. I do not know
why they have not been translated into English. I could not find even one
reference (apart from that of Brit-Am) to them on the web.
I read these works some time ago.
In one of her works Ruth Schechter takes the play "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe (1749-1832) as prototypical of the German mind set.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe%27s_Faust
This is a complicated piece of work but in short Faust makes an arrangement with
the devil that the devil will give him what he wants in return for his soul. He
seduces Gretchen who has killed her mother to be with him. Gretchen becomes
pregnant and kills her child.Gretchen is condemned to death by the court. She
refuses to be rescued by Faust and the devil. A heavenly voice says that
Gretchen will be saved.
# Ultimately, Faust goes to heaven, for
he loses only half of the bet. Angels, who arrive as messengers of divine mercy,
declare at the end of Act V: "He who strives on and lives to strive/ Can earn
redemption still" (V, 11936'7). #
If I remember correctly, Ruth Schechter stated that the Germans thought that by
killing the Jews they could achieve world power at least for a while. The Jews
were a kind of sacrifice to Satan. The Germans were aware that this was an evil
thing, the work of the devil, but somehow hoped that like Faust, they would
escape retribution.
This may sound like a fantasy but when one reads the background history, the
biographies and autobiographies of the perpetrators it is seen to be not that
far-fetched.
Even today Germany is a center of witchcraft and vigorous Satanism.
[ It is interesting that the Conspiracy
Freaks very seldom speak negatively of Germany. Why?
Why are Germans building nuclear reactors for Iran? ]
The Consequence of Sin.
[2-Kings 21:7] He even set a carved
image of Asherah
that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to
Solomon his son, 'In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all
the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;
The Anglo-Saxons worshipped a goddess named Eostre. This is Astarte of the
Middle East also referred to as Asherah. The name Asherah meant a goddess of
that name and also a kind of wooden grove dedicated to her or perhaps to other
idols.
[2-Kings 21:8] and I will not make the
feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers 'only if
they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and
according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.'
Dwelling in the Land of Israel requires Keeping the Law at some minimum level!!
See:
Nachmanides:
The Connection Between Law and Land
http://britam.org/Moses/Moses-2.html
[2-Kings 21:9] But they paid no
attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the
LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
The Canaanite Nations had been killed off and/or expelled from the Land of
Israel partly due to their sins.
The Israelites took their place.
Now, not only were the Israelites acting in the same way the Canaanites had done
but they were even worse!
[2-Kings 21:10] And the LORD spoke by
His servants the prophets, saying,
[2-Kings 21:11] 'Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he
has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also
made Judah sin with his idols),
[2-Kings 21:12] therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Behold, I am
bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both
his ears will tingle.
[2-Kings 21:13] And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria
and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish,
wiping it and turning it upside down.
What was done to Samaria will be done to Jerusalem. In the same way as King
Manasseh of Judah imitated King Ahab of Israel in planting an Asherah (2-Kings
21:3) so too will the same fate befall Judah, cf. Micah 1:6 3:12
[2-Kings 21:14] So I will forsake the
remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and
they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies,
[2-Kings 21:15] because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me
to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.''
[2-Kings 21:16] Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah
sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
[2-Kings 21:17] Now the rest of the acts of
Manasseh'all
that he did, and the sin that he
committed'are they not written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
[2-Kings 21:18] So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and was buried in the
garden of his own house, in the garden of
Uzza.
Then his son Amon
reigned in his place.
According to tradition Manasseh was the son of king Hezekiah and a daughter of
the Prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah was therefore his grandfather. It is said that Manassah killed Isaiah!
We see from other sources (quoted below) that Manasseh was captured by the
Assyrians and exiled to Babylon. In Babylon he repented and was restored to the
Kingdom of Judah. He attempted to rectify the evil he had done and was partially
successful. The prophesied disasters were postponed and made contingent on the
behavior of those who were come after him.
King Manasseh in
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manasseh_of_Judah
Manasseh is mentioned in Assyrian records as a contemporary and loyal vassal of
Sennacherib's son and successor,
Esarhaddon.[2] Assyrian records
list Manasseh among twenty-two kings required to provide materials for
Esarhaddon's
building projects. Esarhaddon
died in 669 BC and was succeeded by his son,
Ashurbanipal,
who also names Manasseh as one of a number of vassals who assisted his campaign
against Egypt.[2]
King Manasseh in the Book of Chronicles.
2-Chronicles 33: 1-11
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five
years in Jerusalem. 2 But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the
abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of
Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken
down; he raised up altars for the
Baals,
and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
4 He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, 'In
Jerusalem shall My name be forever.' 5 And he built altars for all the host of
heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 Also he caused his sons to
pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom;
he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and
spiritists.
He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even
set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which
God had said to David and to Solomon his son, 'In this house and in Jerusalem,
which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;
8 and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have
appointed for your fathers' only
if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole
law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.' 9 So Manasseh
seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations
whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. 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.
http://www.biblehistory.net/Manasseh.pdf
Note:
# The reference to Manasseh's captivity to
Babylon was once
commonly held by liberals as a mistake on the part of the Bible, because Nineveh
was the capital
of Esarhaddon's
Assyrian empire. However, inscriptions from
Esarhaddon
prove that he did indeed rebuild
Babylon. One such inscription reads:
'Esarhaddon.... king of Assyria, governor of Babylon.' #
2-Chronicles 33 continues:
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.
14 After this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of
Gihon,
in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; and it enclosed
Ophel,
and he raised it to a very great height. Then he put military captains in all
the fortified cities of Judah. 15 He took away the foreign gods and the idol
from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of
the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city. 16 He
also repaired the altar of the LORD, sacrificed peace offerings and thank
offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. 17
Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the
LORD their God.
King Manasseh in Josephus.
Josephus (Antiquities, Book 9, chapter 3) tells us about Manasseh repenting
after he was brought to Babylon:
But then it was that Manasseh perceived
what a miserable condition he was in, and esteeming himself the cause of all, he
besought God to render his enemy humane and merciful to him. Accordingly, God
heard his prayer, and granted him what he prayed for. So Manasseh was released
by the king of Babylon, and escaped the danger he was in; and when he was come
to Jerusalem, he endeavored, if it were possible, to cast out of his memory
those his former sins against God, of which he now repented, and to apply
himself to a very religious life. He sanctified the temple, and purged the city,
and for the remainder of his days he was intent on nothing but to return his
thanks to God for his deliverance, and to preserve him propitious to him all his
life long. He also instructed the multitude to do the same, as having very
nearly experienced what a calamity he was fallen into by a contrary conduct. He
also rebuilt the altar, and offered the legal sacrifices, as Moses commanded.
And when he had re-established what concerned the Divine worship, as it ought to
be, he took care of the security of Jerusalem: he did not only repair the old
walls with great diligence, but added another wall to the former. He also built
very lofty towers, and the garrisoned places before the city he strengthened,
not only in other respects, but with provisions of all sorts that they wanted.
And indeed, when he had changed his former course, he so led his life for the
time to come, that from the time of his return to piety towards God he was
deemed a happy man, and a pattern for imitation. When therefore he had lived
sixty-seven years, he departed this life, having reigned fifty-five years, and
was buried in his own garden; and the kingdom came to his son
Amon,
whose mother's name was
Meshulemeth, of the city of
Jotbath.
The message is that we may be almost certain that NONE OF US SINNED like
Manasseh did!
Manasseh repented and his repentance was efficacious.
We can do the same!
King
Amon
of Judah.
[2-Kings 21:19]
Amon
was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in
Jerusalem. His mother's name was
Meshullemeth the daughter of
Haruz
of Jotbah.
King Amon only reigned two years. He was a bad man and did not learn from the
experience of his father King Manasseh who had repented.
The name AMON is from the root AMN from which we have the word "Amen". This word
root connotes belief, faithfulness, and surety. A craftsman is also called an
Oman (from the same root) because he has been trained to be sure of what he is
doing.
So too, we have "Emunah" meaning "belief", and the famous prayer sequence, "Ani
(I) Ma-amin" i.e. I believe.
King Hezekiah the grandfather of Amon had been a very righteous monarch.
Miracles happened in his reign. His Menesseh started off as extremely wicked but
then after meeting disaster repented. Amon the son of Menseeh was again wicked.
The son of Amon, Josiah, was destined to be a great and righteous monarch. And
so it continues. We can learn from this. Never give up. Never be too sure of
yourself.
Do what you have to do and hope it comes out well. And if it does not know that
hope is not lost.
[2-Kings 21:20] And he did evil in the
sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.
The Book of Chronicles repeats most of what is written here concerning Menesseh
but adds a little.
[2-Chronicles 33:23] And he did not
humble himself before the LORD, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself;
but
Amon
trespassed more and more.
From this expression the Sages (Sanhedrin 103;b) learned that Amon sinned even
more than his father, Menesseh, had done!
[2-Kings 21:21] So he walked in all the
ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had
served, and worshiped them.
[2-Kings 21:22] He forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and did not walk in the
way of the LORD.
[2-Kings 21:23] Then the servants of
Amon
conspired against him, and killed the king in his own house.
[2-Kings 21:24] 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.
We need to remember that all this time the Ten Tribes were already in exile and
Judah was subservient to Assyria.
[2-Kings 21:25] Now the rest of the acts of
Amon
which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Judah?
[2-Kings 21:26] And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of
Uzza.
Then Josiah his son reigned in his place.
King Josiah was one of the greatest monarchs who ever lived. He was destined to
throw off the yoke of Assyria, uproot idolatry, conquer surrounding territories,
and reform the Kingdom. He was also to connect with the Scythian Israelites in
their places of exile and encourage them to return. During the reign of King
Josiah colonies of Scythians were established in areas of Israel that were under
the control of King Josiah, as we shall see. Eventually however Josiah was
killed by invading Egyptians. The settler-returnee Israelite-Scythians then went
back to their places of exile.
This whole episode was first explained in detail in our work "The Tribes. THE ISRAELITE ORIGINS OF WESTERN PEOPLES".
It is one of several research breakthroughs that Brit-Am deserves credit for.
Whatever one thinks of Brit-Am we have merited to do things of great worth. Brit-Am needs to be supported, to be encouraged, and to be enabled
to continue.
To Make an Offering to Brit-Am!
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