And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they didn’t listen.And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken.And Jehovah spake to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed.
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… so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So what Scripture is telling us is that for 55 years, you've got a guy in charge who's leading the people to be worse than even the pagan nations around them. It's total immorality, total evil, total wickedness, total godlessness that is throughout the people of Israel. Well, the next guy takes over. His name is Iman. Look at what happens in verse 22 of chapter 33. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Ammon worshipped and served and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made. So basically, he just keeps the things going. The only good thing to say about this guy is that he only reigned for two years. He wasn't there for 55. He was there for two until some of his leaders conspired to kill him. And so what you've got coming into 2 Chronicles 34 is a picture of 57 years of witchcraft, idolatry, wickedness, and total godlessness among the people of God. …
Nor was this all, for though it is not recorded in the Chronicles, yet you will find in the Second Book of Kings, at the 21st Chapter, that he persecuted the people of God very furiously. "Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end of it to another." He was so zealous in carrying out his idolatries that he could not endure the sight of a man who would not bow before his images! He hated those ancient Nonconformists, those Protestants, those separatists, those Puritans—and he made laws to put them down so that the worshippers of Jehovah were "stoned and were sawn asunder, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented." We cannot vouch for the tradition that the Prophet Isaiah was put to death by Manasseh by being sawn in sunder, but terrible as is the legend, it is not at all improbable. Manasseh had his Bartholomew Massacre and his unholy Inquisition! He was a bloody persecutor during much of his long life and left marks of his reign of terror all over the land. Persecution is one of the most heinous of sins and greatly provokes the Most High, for the Lord has said concerning His people, "He that touches you, touches the apple of My eye." Manasseh did, as it were, thrust his finger into the eye of God! This was a Heaven-provoking crime! In these days the law does not allow the shedding of innocent blood, but there are people in the world who go as far as they can in persecution. There are modes of torture which can be used against a believing wife, such as will hardly be imagined! Children can be provoked and grievously afflicted by un-Christian parents. "Trials of cruel mocking," are mentioned by the Apostle—and they are very cruel and trying, too. We have known persons use towards brothers and sisters, and even towards children, such threats and modes of abuse and such taunts and jeers, that they have made their lives bitter as with heavy bondage! This is against God a very high offense. You cannot anger a man more than by ill-using his little ones! Touch his children and you bring the color into his face, directly, and the man's temper is up—and he who insults, and mocks and grieves God's children will one day find that the Lord will avenge His own elect though He bears long with them! …
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. "So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people; but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord, his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God."—2 Chron. 33:9-13. MANASSEH was born three years after his father's memorable sickness. You will remember that Hezekiah was stricken with a mortal disease, and Isaiah, the prophet, come to him and said, "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." He appears to have been startled and appalled at the tidings, and gave vent to his feelings with bitter tears. Evidently he was afraid at the time to face death. He had probably been indulging a worldly spirit; and besides this, it lay as a heavy burden upon his heart that he had no son whom he should leave as his successor in the kingdom. In deep distress of soul, accordingly, he turned to the wall and prayed to the Lord. With piteous weeping and earnest pleading he besought that his life might be spared. His prayer was heard, his tears were seen, and his petition was granted by God. His days were prolonged by fifteen years. In the third year of those fifteen years his son Manasseh was born to hire. Had he knows, methinks, what sort of a son would have risen up in his stead, he might have been content to die, rather than to be the father of such a persecutor of God's people, and such a setter up of idolatry in the land. Alas! full often we know not what we, pray for. We may be covetous of an apparent boon which would prove to be a real curse both to ourselves and to thousands of others. You prayed, mother—yea, prayed fervently—for the life of that dear babe whom God was pleaded to take away from you. You cannot know what disposition the child would have shown, what temptations would have befallen it, or what consequences would have come of its life. Could some parents have read the history of their children from the day of their birth, they might rightly have wished that they had never been born. We had better leave such matters with God, and submit to his sovereign will. He knows better than we do, for ho is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. Thank God, these affairs are not in our own hands. They are in far better and wiser keeping than ours. …