2 Chronicles 33:4-7
built <01129> [he built.]
Jerusalem <03389> [In Jerusalem.]
two <08147> [in the two.]
passed <05674> [caused.]
divination <06049> [he observed.]
reading .... He ................... did <06213> [dealt.]
put .... image <06459 07760> [he set a carved image.]
The Targumist says, "He set up an image, the likeness of himself, in the house of the sanctuary." In the parallel passage it is, "a graven image of the grove," or rather, Asherah or Astarte. Manasseh, as Bp. Patrick observes, seems to have studied to find out what God had forbidden in his law, that he might practice it: a most prodigious change from the height of piety in his father's time, into the sink of impiety in this!
temple ............... temple <01004> [in the house.]
God's ..... God ... said <0559 0430> [God had said.]
<0977> [which I have.]
2 Chronicles 33:22
did ............. Manasseh ... done ........... Manasseh <06213 04519> [as did Manasseh.]
sacrifices ...... his <0526 02076> [for Amon sacrificed.]
Amon's conduct is recorded as like his father Manasseh, in sacrificing to graven images; by which some think it is an evidence that Manasseh did not truly repent, but they forget how many good kings had wicked sons. In one point of view Manasseh was defective, although it cannot be supposed that it affected his eternal state; for when he cast out the images, he did not utterly deface and destroy them, according to the law in De 7:5, which required, moreover, that the graven images should be burnt with fire. How necessary that law was, this instance shows; for the carved images being only thrown aside, and not burnt, Amon knew where to find them, soon set them up, and sacrificed to them.
