Manasseh's Apostasy and Long Reign

The event

Manasseh became king at just twelve years old and reigned longer than any other king of Judah — fifty-five years — but Scripture's assessment could hardly be harsher: he rebuilt the high places Hezekiah had destroyed, erected altars to Baal, worshiped "all the host of heaven," practiced witchcraft and sorcery, and even sacrificed his own son in the fire. He set a carved idol in the Temple itself, and 2 Kings names him directly as the reason the Lord would eventually give Judah over to judgment.

2 Chronicles adds a striking postscript that 2 Kings doesn't include: the king of Assyria eventually took Manasseh captive to Babylon in bronze shackles, and there, in genuine distress, he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. The Lord heard his plea and restored him to his throne in Jerusalem, and Manasseh spent his remaining years trying to undo the damage — removing foreign gods, repairing the altar of the Lord, and even ordering Judah to serve Him alone.

Manasseh's story is one of the Old Testament's most vivid pictures of grace reaching even the worst offenders — a reminder that no history of sin, however long or dark, puts a person beyond the possibility of God's mercy when he truly repents.

Dating

Thiele dates Manasseh's coregency with Hezekiah from 697 BC and his sole reign continuing to about 643/642 BC.

Scripture references

• 2 Kings 21:1-18
• 2 Chronicles 33:1-20