2nd Kings Chapter 21 verse 16 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much. We must not understand this of his own offerings to Moloch, for these have been already put on record against him (ver. 6), and this is something additional (note the strong expression, וְגַם), nor even of the multitudinous sacrifices of the same kind which were the result of his influence on the people. Some culminating horror is required, something not touched upon before, and something specially attaching to the monarch himself. These conditions are answered by supposing a bloody persecution of the faithful to be intended. Josephus declares positively that Manasseh "cruelly put to death all the righteous among the Hebrews, and did not even spare the prophets" ('Ant. Jud.,' 10:3. § 1). A tradition, very widely received, declared Isaiah to have been one of the victims ('Gemara Jebam.,' 4:13; 'Sanhedr.,' f. 103; Tertullian, 'De Patientia,' § 14; Augustine, 'De Cir. Dei,' 18:24, etc.). Stanley says, "A reign of terror commenced against all who ventured to resist the reaction. Day by day a fresh batch of the prophetic order were ordered for execution. It seemed as if a devouring lion were let loose against them. From end to end of Jerusalem were to be seen traces of their blood. The nobles who took their part were thrown headlong from the rocky cliffs of Jerusalem" ('Lectures on the Jewish Church,' pt. 2. p. 492). The persecution has been compared to that of Anglicans under Mary Tudor. Till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another - i.e. "till he had filled it with blood and slaughter" (comp. 2 Kings 24:4) - beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord (see ver. 9).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood . . .--The narrative is taken up again from 2Kings 21:9. The "innocent blood" shed by Manasseh was that of the prophets of Jehovah and their followers. "As the nation fell back into the grooves of its old existence, ancient customs began to reassert their sway. The worship which the prophets condemned, and which Hezekiah had proscribed, was too deeply interwoven with all parts of life to be uprooted by royal decree, and the old prejudice of the country folk against the capital, so clearly apparent in (the pages of the prophet) Micah, must have co-operated with superstition to bring about the strong revulsion against the new reforms which took place under Hezekiah's son, Manasseh. A bloody struggle ensued between the conservative party and the followers of the prophets, and the new king was on the side of the reaction (Robertson Smith). Talmudic tradition relates that Isaiah himself was sawn asunder in the trunk of a cedar tree in which he had taken refuge. (Comp. Hebrews 11:37. This is, perhaps, not impossible, but hardly probable. Ewald considers that Jeremiah 2:30, Psalm 141:7, and Isaiah 53, allude to the persecution of the prophets by Manasseh.