II Kings 21:16
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
In this chapter we have a short but sad account of the reigns of two of the kings of Judah, Manasseh and Amon. I. Concerning Manasseh, all the account we have of him here is, 1. That he devoted himself to sin, to all manner of wickedness, idolatry, and murder (Kg2 21:1-9 and Kg2 21:16). 2. That therefore God devoted him, and Jerusalem for his sake, to ruin (Kg2 21:10-18). In the book of Chronicles we have an account of his troubles, and his repentance. II. Concerning Amon we are only told that he lived in sin (Kg2 21:19-22), died quickly by the sword, and left good Josiah his successor (Kg2 21:23-26). By these two reigns Jerusalem was much debauched and much weakened, and so hastened apace towards its destruction, which slumbered not.
Open source ↗21:16 innocent blood: Beyond his loathsome spiritual sin, Manasseh was guilty of murder. Jewish tradition holds that Isaiah was one of many prophets that Manasseh put to death.
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
“Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these abominations, acting more wickedly than the Amorites who preceded him, and with his idols has caused Judah to sin,
Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Manasseh even took the carved Asherah pole he had made and set it up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated.
“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”
I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.
Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things
because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,