CHAPTER VI.

_REIGN OF MANASSEH. REFORMS OF JOSIAH._ 2 KINGS XXI.–XXIII. 2 CHRON. XXXIII.–XXXV. B.C. 698–623.

ON the death of Hezekiah, his son MANASSEH succeeded to the throne at a very early age, having been born in all probability twelve years before his father’s death, B.C. 710. His mother, whose name was Hephzibah[425] (_the delightsome one_, Isai. lxii. 4), was descended from one of the princes of Jerusalem. His own name is remarkable, and was borne by no one else in the history of the kingdom of Judah. It is the name of the tribe second only to Ephraim in hostility to Judah, and has been supposed to have been given to him in remembrance of the fond hope of his father to unite the remnants of Manasseh and other northern tribes in a common worship and faith[426].

The accession of this king at the early age of 12 years was the signal for an entire revolution in the religious policy which his father had so consistently carried out. It has been suggested that the idolatrous party, which had sided with Ahaz, and had only been repressed during the reign of Hezekiah, now recovered its old ascendancy, and exercised a baneful influence over the youthful monarch. Whether this was so or not, the spirit of loyalty to Jehovah which Hezekiah had evinced was exchanged for a more general adoption of heathen modes of worship than had disfigured even the idolatrous days of Ahaz. Not only were the high places restored, but the worst enormities of Ahab were introduced into Jerusalem. Altars were erected in honour of Baal and Ashtaroth and all the host of heaven, even within the sacred precincts of the Temple (2 Chr. xxxiii. 4, 5). The king himself, not _only observed times, and used enchantments, and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards_ (2 Chr. xxxiii. 6), but even dedicated some of his sons in the fire to Moloch, and slaughtered others (Ez. xxiii. 37–39). The cries of human victims offered in honour of this hideous deity of the Ammonites re-echoed throughout the valley of Hinnom, and the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were practised with impunity in that city where Jehovah had said that he would put His Name for ever (2 Chr. xxxiii. 4). The consequent moral degeneracy was fearful. The old faith was everywhere neglected and despised. The altar of Jehovah was broken down (2 Chr. xxxiii. 16), even the ark was displaced (2 Chr. xxxv. 3), and so systematic was the destruction of the Sacred Books, that fifty years later the discovery of the Book of the Law was an event exciting wonder and astonishment (2 K. xxii. 8), while the Sabbath, the sign between the elect nation and Jehovah, was polluted (Isai. lvi. 2;