2 Kings 21:8

Neither will I make the feet of Israel move . . . out of the land which I gave their fathers--alluding to the promise (Sa2 7:10).

only if they will observe, &c.--This condition was expressed from the first plantation of Israel in Canaan. But that people not only did not keep it, but through the pernicious influence of Manasseh, were seduced into greater excesses of idolatrous corruption than even the original Canaanites.

How delightful were our meditations on the last reign! How many pleasing views had we of Sion in its glory (that is, in its purity and in its triumphs), of the king in his beauty! (for Isa 33:17 refers to Hezekiah), and (as it follows there, Kg2 21:20) Jerusalem was a quiet habitation because a city of righteousness, Isa 1:26. But now we have melancholy work upon our hands, unpleasant ground to travel, and cannot but drive heavily. How has the gold become dim and the most fine gold changed! The beauty of Jerusalem is stained, and all her glory, all her joy, sunk and gone. These verses give such an account of this reign as make it, in all respects, the reverse of the last, and, in a manner, the ruin of it.
I. Manasseh began young. He was but twelve years old when he began to reign (Kg2 21:1), born when his father was about forty-two years old, three years after his sickness. If he had sons before, either they were dead, or set by as unpromising. As yet they knew of nothing bad in him, and they hoped he would prove good; but he proved very bad, and perhaps his coming to the crown so young might help to make it so, which yet will by no means excuse him, for his grandson Josiah came to it younger than he and yet acted well. But being young, 1. He was puffed up with his honour and proud of it; and thinking himself very wise, because he was very great, valued himself upon his undoing what his father had done. It is too common for novices to be lifted up with pride, and so to fall into the condemnation of the devil. 2. He was easily wrought upon and drawn aside by seducers, that lay in wait to deceive. Those that were enemies to Hezekiah's reformation, and retained an affection for the old idolatries, flattered him, and so gained his ear, and used his power at their pleasure. Many have been undone by coming too soon to their honours and estates.
II. He reigned long, longest of any of the kings of Judah, fifty-five years. This was the only very bad reign that was a long one; Joram's was but eight years, and Ahaz's sixteen; as for Manasseh's, we hope that in the beginning of his reign for some time affairs continued to move in the course that his father left them in, and that in the latter end of his reign, after his repentance, religion got head again; and, no doubt, when things were at the worst God had his remnant that kept their integrity. Though he reigned long, yet some of this time he was a prisoner in Babylon, which may well be looked upon as a drawback from these years, though they are reckoned in the number because then he repented and began to reform.
III. He reigned very ill.
1. In general, (1.) He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and which, having been well educated, he could not but know was so (Kg2 21:2): He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, as if on purpose to provoke him to anger, Kg2 21:6. (2.) He did after the abominations of the heathen (Kg2 21:2) and as did Ahab (Kg2 21:3), not taking warning by the destruction both of the nations of Canaan and the house of Ahab for their idolatry; nay (Kg2 21:9), he did more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed. When the holy seed degenerate, they are commonly worse than the worst of the profane.
2. More particularly, (1.) He rebuilt the high places which his father had destroyed, Kg2 21:3. Thus did he trample upon the dust, and affront the memory, of his worthy father, though he knew how much he was favoured of God and honoured of men. He concurred, it is probable, with Rabshakeh's sentiments (Kg2 18:22), that Hezekiah had done ill in destroying those high places, and pretended the honour of God, and the edification and convenience of the people, in rebuilding them. This he began with, but proceeded to that which was much worse; for, (2.) He set up other gods, Baal and Ashtaroth (which we translate a grove), and all the host of heaven, the sun and moon, the other planets, and the constellations; these he worshipped and served (Kg2 21:3), gave their names to the images he made, and then did homage to them and prayed for help from them. To these he built altars (Kg2 21:5), and offered sacrifices, no doubt, on these altars. (3.) He made his son pass through the fire, by which he dedicated him a votary to Moloch, in contempt of the seal of circumcision by which he had been dedicated to God. (4.) He made the devil his oracle, and, in contempt both of urim and prophecy, he used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits (Kg2 21:6) like Saul. Conjurers and fortune-tellers (who pretended, by the stars or the clouds, lucky and unlucky days, good and bad omens, the flight of birds, or the entrails of beasts, to foretel things to come) were great men with him, his intimates, his confidants; their arts pleased his fancy, and gained his belief, and his counsels were under their direction. (5.) We find afterwards (Kg2 21:16) that he shed innocent blood very much in gratification of his own passion and revenge; some perhaps were secretly murdered, others taken off by colour of law. Probably much of the blood he shed was theirs that opposed idolatry and witnessed against it, that would not bow the knee to Baal. The blood of the prophets is, in a particular manner, charged upon Jerusalem, and it is probable that he put to death many of them. The tradition of the Jews is that he caused the prophet Isaiah to be sawn asunder; and many think the apostle refers to this in Heb 11:37, where he speaks of those that had so suffered.
3. Three things are here mentioned as aggravations of Manasseh's idolatry: - (1.) That he set up his images and altars in the house of the Lord (Kg2 21:4), in the two courts of the temple (Kg2 21:5), in the very house of which God had said to Solomon, Here will I put my name, Kg2 21:7. Thus he defied God to his face, and impudently affronted him with his rivals immediately under his eye, as one that was neither afraid of God's wrath nor ashamed of his own folly and wickedness. Thus he desecrated what had been consecrated to God, and did, in effect, turn God out of his own house and put the rebels in possession of it. Thus, when the faithful worshippers of God came to the place he had appointed for the performance of their duty to him, they found, to their great grief and terror, other gods ready to receive their offerings. God had said that here he would record his name, here he would put it for ever, and here it was accordingly preserved, while the idolatrous altars were kept at a distance; but Manasseh, by bringing them into God's house, did what he could to alter the property, and to make the name of the God of Israel to be no more in remembrance. (2.) That hereby he put a great slight upon the word of God, and his covenant with Israel. Observe the favour he had shown to that people in putting his name among them, - the kindness he intended them, never to make them move out of that good land, - and the reasonableness of his expectations from them, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, Kg2 21:7, Kg2 21:8. Upon these good terms did Israel stand with God, and had as fair a prospect of being happy as any people could have; but they hearkened not, Kg2 21:9. They would not be kept close to God either by his precepts or by his promises; both were cast behind their back. (3.) That hereby he seduced the people of God, debauched them, and drew them into idolatry, Kg2 21:9. He caused Judah to sin (Kg2 21:11), as Jeroboam had caused Israel to sin. His very example was enough to corrupt the generality of unthinking people, who would do as their king did, right or wrong. All that aimed at preferment would do as the court did; and others thought it safest to comply, for fear of making their king their enemy. Thus, one way or other, the holy city became a harlot, and Manasseh made her so. Those will have a great deal to answer for that not only are wicked themselves, but help to make others so.

Neither will I make the feet of Israel - Had they been faithful to God's testimonies they never had gone into captivity, and should even at this day have been in possession of the promised land.

Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers,.... Or suffer them to be carried captive into another land, as in the times of the judges; that is, on the following condition:

only if they will observe to do according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them by obedience to which they had the tenure of the land of Canaan, Isaiah 1:19.

Move any more out of the land; they shall no more be carried captives into a strange land, as it had happened before.

Reign of Manasseh (cf. 2 Chron 33:1-20). - Kg2 21:1. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, so that he was not born till after Hezekiah's dangerous illness (Kg2 20:1.).
Kg2 21:2
Having begun to reign at this early age, he did not choose his father's ways, but set up the idolatry of his father Ahab again, since the godless party in the nation, at whose head chiefs, priests, and (false) prophets stood, and who would not hearken to the law of the Lord, and in the time of Hezekiah had sought help against Assyria not from Jehovah, but from the Egyptians (Isa 28:7, Isa 28:14., Isa 30:9.), had obtained control of the young an inexperienced king, and had persuaded him to introduce idolatry again. On Kg2 21:2 cf. Kg2 8:18 and Kg2 16:3.
Kg2 21:3-5
ויּבן ויּשׁב, "he built again" the high places, which Hezekiah had destroyed (Kg2 18:4), erected altars for Baal and an Asherah, like Ahab of Israel (Kg1 16:32-33). האשׁרה is the image of Asherah mentioned in Kg2 21:7, whereas in the Chronicles the thought is generalized by the plurals לבּעלים and האשׁרות. To these two kinds of idolatry, the idolatrous bamoth and the (true) Baal-and Asherah-worship, Manasseh added as a third kind the worship of all the host of heaven, which had not occurred among the Israelites before the Assyrian era, and was probably of Assyrian or Chaldaean origin. This worship differed from the Syrophoenician star-worship, in which sun and moon were worshipped under the names of Baal and Astarte as the bearers of the male and female powers of nature, and was pure star-worship, based upon the idea of the unchangeableness of the stars in contradistinction to the perishableness of everything earthly, according to which the stars were worshipped not merely as the originators of all rise and decay in nature, but also as the leaders and regulators of sublunary things (see Movers, Phniz. i. pp. 65 and 161). This star-worship was a later development of the primary star-worship of Ssabism, in which the stars were worshipped without any image, in the open air or upon the housetops, by simple contemplation, the oldest and comparatively the purest form of deification of nature, to which the earlier Arabians and the worshippers of the sun among the Ssabians (Zabians) were addicted (cf. Delitzsch on Job 31:26-27), and which is mentioned and forbidden in Deu 4:19 and Deu 17:3. In this later form the sun had sacred chariots and horses as among the Persians (Kg2 23:11), and incense was offered to the stars, with the face turned towards the east, upon altars which were built either upon housetops, as in the case of the Nabataeans (Strabo, xvi. 784), or within the limits of the temple in the two courts (cf. Eze 8:16, also Kg2 21:5; Kg2 23:12, and Ch2 33:5; Jer 19:13; Zep 1:5). This burning of incense took place not merely to the sun and moon, but also to the signs of the zodiac and to all the host of heaven, i.e., to all the stars (Kg2 23:5); by which we are no doubt to understand that the sun, moon, planets and other stars, were worshipped in conjunction with the zodiac, and with this were connected astrology, augury, and the casting of nativities, as in the case of the later so-called Chaldaeans.
(Note: Movers (Phniz. i. p. 65) correctly observes, that "in all the books of the Old Testament which are written before the Assyrian period there is no trace of any (?) star-worship; not that the Phoenician (Canaanitish) gods had not also a sidereal significance, but because this element was only a subordinate one, and the expressions, sun, moon, and stars, and all the host of heaven, which are not met with before, become for the first time common now," - although his proofs of the difference between the Assyrian star-worship and the Phoenician and Babylonian image-worship stand greatly in need of critical sifting.)
This star-worship is more minutely described in Kg2 21:4, Kg2 21:5. The two verses are closely connected. The מזבּחות וּבנה of Kg2 21:4 is resumed in מזב ויּבן in Kg2 21:5, and the יי בּבית of Kg2 21:4 is more minutely defined in the יי בּית חצרות בּשׁתּי of. Kg2 21:5. "In the two courts:" not merely in the outer court, but even in the court of the priests, which was set apart for the worship of Jehovah.
Kg2 21:6
He also offered his son in sacrifice to Moloch, like Ahaz (Kg2 16:3), in the valley of Benhinnom (Chr. cf. Kg2 23:10), and practised soothsaying and witchcraft of every kind. On ונחשׁ עונן see Deu 18:10 and Lev 19:26, אוב עשׂה, he made, i.e., appointed, put into office, a "necromancer and wise people" (cf. Lev 19:31 and Deu 18:11).
Kg2 21:7
Yea, he even placed the image of Asherah in the temple, i.e., in the Holy Place. In the description of his idolatry, which advances gradatim, this is introduced as the very worst crime. According to the express declaration of the Lord to David (Sa2 7:13) and Solomon (Kg1 9:3 compared with Kg2 8:16), the temple was to serve as the dwelling-place of His name.
Kg2 21:8
The word of the Lord, "I will no more make the foot of Israel to move out of the land which I gave to their fathers," refers to the promise in Sa2 7:10 : "I will appoint my people a place, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and be stirred up no more," which had been fulfilled by the building of the temple as the seat of the name of the Lord, in the manner indicated in pp. 85ff. The lasting fulfilment of this promise, however, was made to rest upon the condition of Israel's faithful adherence to the commandments of God (cf. Kg1 9:6.).
Kg2 21:9
This condition was not observed by the Israelites; Manasseh seduced them, so that they did more evil than the Canaanites, whom Jehovah had destroyed before them.
Kg2 21:10-12
The Lord therefore announced through the prophets, to the rebellious and idolatrous nation, the destruction of Jerusalem and the deliverance of Judah into the hands of its enemies; but, as is added in Ch2 33:10, they paid no heed to them. The prophets who foretold this terrible judgment are not named. According to Ch2 33:18, their utterances were entered in the annals of the kings. Habakkuk was probably one of them, since he (Hab 1:5) predicted the Chaldaean judgment as a fact which excited astonishment and appeared incredible. The Amorites are mentioned in Kg2 21:11 instar omnium as the supporters of the Canaanitish ungodliness, as in Kg1 21:26, etc. - The phrase, "that whosoever heareth it, both his ears may tingle," denotes such a judgment as has never been heard of before, and excites alarm and horror (cf. Sa1 3:11 and Jer 19:3). The Keri שׁמעהּ is a correction, to bring the pronom. suff. into conformity with the noun רעה so far as the gender is concerned, whereas in the Chethb שׁמעיו the masculine suffix is used in the place of the feminine, as is frequently the case.
Kg2 21:13
"I stretch over Jerusalem the measure of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab." The measure (קו) and the plummet (משׁקלת, lit., a level) were applied to what was being built (Zac 1:16), and also to what was being made level with the ground, i.e., completely thrown down (Amo 7:7). From this sprang the figurative expressions, measure of desolation and plummet of devastation (Isa 34:11). - The measure of Samaria therefore denotes the measure which was applied to the destruction of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab denotes the extermination of the royal house of Ahab. The meaning is: I shall destroy Jerusalem as I have destroyed Samaria, and exterminate its inhabitants like the house of Ahab. In the second hemistich the same thing is expressed, if possible, still more strongly: "I wipe away Jerusalem as one wipes the dish, and (having) wiped (it), turns it upon its upper side (פּניה)." The wiping of a dish that has been used, and the turning over of the dish wiped, so as not to leave a single drop in it, are a figurative representation of the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the utter extermination of its inhabitants.
Kg2 21:14-15
With the destruction of Jerusalem the Lord forsakes the people of His possession, and give it up to its enemies for a prey and spoil. נחלתי שׁארית: Judah is called the remnant of the people of God's inheritance with a reference to the rejection and leading away of the ten tribes, which have already taken place. On וּמשׁסּה בּז see Isa 42:22; Jer 30:16.
To this announcement of the judgment there is appended in Ch2 33:11. the statement, that Jehovah caused Manasseh the king to be taken prisoner by the generals of the king of Assyria and led away to Babylon in chains; and that when he humbled himself before God there, and made supplication to Him, He brought him back to Jerusalem and placed him upon his throne again; whereupon Manasseh fortified the walls of Jerusalem still further, placed garrisons in the fortified cities, removed the idol from the temple, abolished from the city the idolatrous altars erected in Jerusalem and upon the temple-mountain, restored the altar of Jehovah, and commanded the people to offer sacrifice upon it. - This incident is omitted in our book, because the conversion of Manasseh was not followed by any lasting results so far as the kingdom was concerned; the abolition of outward idolatry in Jerusalem did not lead to the conversion of the people, and after the death of Manasseh even the idolatrous abominations that had been abolished were restored by Amon.
(Note: The historical truth of these accounts, which Rosenmller, Winer, and Hitzig called in question after the example of Gramberg, has been defended by Ewald, Bertheau, and even by Thenius; and the latest attack which has been made upon it by Graf in the theol. Studien u. Krit. 1859, iii., has been met by E. Gerlach in the same magazine of 1861. For further remarks see the Commentary on the Chronicles.)
Kg2 21:16
Manasseh also sinned grievously by shedding innocent blood till Jerusalem was quite filled with it. לפה פּה, from one edge to the other, see at Kg2 10:21. This statement has been paraphrased by Josephus thus (Ant. x. 3, 1): Manasseh slew πάντας ὁμῶς τοὺς δικαίους τοὺς ἐν τοῖς Ἑεβραίοις, and did not spare even the prophets, with the additional clause, which exaggerates the thing: καὶ τούτων δέ τινας καθ ̓ ἡμέραν ἀπέσφαξε, ὥστε αἵματι ῥεῖσθαι τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα.
(Note: The widespread Jewish and Christian legend, that Manasseh put to death the prophet Isaiah, and indeed had him sawn in sunder, to which there is an allusion in Heb 11:37, also belongs here. (See Delitzsch, Comm. on Isaiah, p. 5.))
Kg2 21:17-18
Manasseh was buried "in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza." "His house" cannot be the royal palace built by Solomon, because the garden is also called the garden of Uzza, evidently from the name of its former possessor. "His house" must therefore have been a summer palace belonging to Manasseh, the situation of which, however, it is impossible to determine more precisely. The arguments adduced by Thenius in support of the view that it was situated upon Ophel, opposite to Zion, are perfectly untenable. Robinson (Pal. i. p. 394) conjectures that the garden of Uzza was upon Zion. The name עוּא (עזּה) occurs again in Sa2 6:8; Ch1 8:7; Ezr 2:49, and Neh 7:51.