heed. 11Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh [1]in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. 12And when he was in distress, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13And he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.
14Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate; and he compassed about
11. Assyria] Manasseh is mentioned in an Assyrian list of kings tributary to Esar-haddon and Asshur-bani-pal, but no Assyrian inscription at present known speaks of his captivity. We have, however, monumental evidence that there was a great insurrection against Asshur-bani-pal, the grandson of Sennacherib, in which Western Asia (and perhaps Manasseh) was involved. The subsequent restoration of Manasseh to his kingdom is not incredible, for Neco I of Egypt was first put in fetters and afterwards sent back to Egypt. (Driver in Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology, pp. 114—116.)
in chains] Rather, with hooks (as mg.); cp. 2 Kin. xix. 28 (= Is. xxxvii. 29). Assyrian kings sometimes thrust a hook or ring into the nostrils of their captives and so led them about. The practice is illustrated on many Assyrian reliefs in the British Museum (see Handcock, Latest Light on Bible Lands, p. 159).
to Babylon] Nineveh, not Babylon, was the capital of Assyria, but as Asshur-bani-pal at times resided in Babylon, there is nothing improbable in any important prisoner of his being carried thither.
13. he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him] It is very pleasing to notice that, for all the rigidity of the Chronicler's theology, he allows that even an heinous sinner may repent, and that, if he does so, he will meet with Divine acceptance.
14—17 (not in 2 Kin.). The Later Deeds of Manasseh.
14. an outer wall . . . fish gate] "This can only mean that outside the existing rampart of the citadel, on the ridge above the present Virgin's Spring [i.e. St Mary's Well, see note, xxxii. 3], Manasseh constructed another line of fortification which he carried northwards past the Temple Mount, and round its northern slope," G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, 1. 208. The fish-gate was in the northern wall, probably corresponding to the modern Damascus Gate (ib. 1. 202).
- ↑ Or, with hooks
