8 neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
"'If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. "'I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid; and I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. "'I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new. I will set my tent among you: and my soul won't abhor you. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
Yahweh heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have well said all that they have spoken. Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, who Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your animals, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you: they shall come out against you one way, and shall flee before you seven ways. Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh; and they shall be afraid of you. Yahweh will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow. Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do [them], and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God. Else if you do at all go back, and cleave to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no more drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, and a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.
The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they didn't obey the voice of Yahweh their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.
But my people didn't listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, That they might walk in their own counsels. Oh that my people would listen to me, That Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, And turn my hand against their adversaries. The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him, And their punishment would last forever. But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock."
Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Don't you trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these. For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.
and tell them, Hear you the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein; then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing [sacrifices of] thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh. But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates of it, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? then cause her to know all her abominations. You shall say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her! You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. Those who are near, and those who are far from you, shall mock you, you infamous one [and] full of tumult. Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. In you have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the foreigner; in you have they wronged the fatherless and the widow. You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness. In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity. One has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter. In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh. Behold, therefore, I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you. Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it. I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you. You shall be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land? You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and you defile everyone his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land? Thus shall you tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through. Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Kings 21
Commentary on 2 Kings 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
In this chapter we have a short but sad account of the reigns of two of the kings of Judah, Manasseh and Amon.
By these two reigns Jerusalem was much debauched and much weakened, and so hastened apace towards its destruction, which slumbered not.
2Ki 21:1-9
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, v. 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.
2Ki 21:10-18
Here is the doom of Judah and Jerusalem read, and it is heavy doom. The prophets were sent, in the first place, to teach them the knowledge of God, to remind them of their duty and direct them in it. If they succeeded not in that, their next work was to reprove them for their sins, and to set them in view before them, that they might repent and reform, and return to their duty. If in this they prevailed not, but sinners went on frowardly, their next work was to foretel the judgments of God, that the terror of them might awaken those to repentance who would not be made sensible of the obligations of his love, or else that the execution of them, in their season, might be a demonstration of the divine mission of the prophets that foretold them. The prophets were deputed judges to those that would not hear and receive them as teachers. We have here,
This is all we have here of Manasseh; he stands convicted and condemned; but we hope in the book of Chronicles to hear of his repentance, and acceptance with God. Meantime, we must be content, in this place, to have only one intimation of his repentance (for so we are willing to take it), that he was buried, it is likely by his own order, in the garden of his own house (v. 18); for, being truly humbled for his sins, he judged himself no more worthy to be called a son, a son of David, and therefore not worthy to have even his dead body buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. True penitents take shame to themselves, not honour; yet, having lost the credit of an innocent, the credit of a penitent was the next best he was capable of. And better it is, and more honourable, for a sinner to die repenting, and be buried in a garden, than to die impenitent, and be buried in the abbey.
2Ki 21:19-26
Here is a short account of the short and inglorious reign of Amon, the son of Manasseh. Whether Manasseh, in his blind and brutish zeal for his idols, had sacrificed his other sons-or whether, having been dedicated to his idols, they were refused by the people-so it was that his successor was a son not born till he was forty-five years old. And of him we are here told,