Many of the kings of Israel and those who ruled in Judah near the time when the people were taken into captivity were described as doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD. One king in particular, Manasseh, king of Judah was called out for his evil practices. It says in 2 Chronicles 33:2 that Manasseh “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” An abomination defines “something or someone as essentially unique in the sense of being dangerous, sinister, and repulsive to another individual (Genesis 43:32; 46:34; Proverbs 29:27). When used with reference to God, this word describes people, things, acts, relationships, and characteristics that are detestable to Him because they are contrary to His nature, such as things related to death and idolatry (Deuteronomy 14:3); people with loathsome habits are themselves detestable to Him (Deuteronomy 22:5)” (H8441). Manasseh “rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them…And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers…Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:3-9). The Hebrew word that is translated astray in 2 Chronicles 33:9, taʿah (taw-awˊ) was used by the prophet Isaiah in reference to mankind’s universal need for salvation. Isaiah said about Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

According to the prophet Jeremiah, Manasseh was responsible for the kingdom of Judah being destroyed by God. God told Jeremiah, “I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 15:3-4). God’s denouncement of Manasseh’s idolatry included a judgment against Judah for doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD. God said:

Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.” (2 Kings 21:12-15)

God indicated that his chosen people had been provoking him to anger, “since the day their fathers came out of Egypt” (2 Kings 21:15). While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God, it says in Exodus 32:1, “The people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

It says in 2 Chronicles 33:10-11, “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to the people, but they paid no attention. Therefore, the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.” God warned Manasseh that he was going in the wrong direction, but he ignored God’s message. The Hebrew word that is translated paid no attention, qashab (kaw-shabˊ) “denoted obedience that was expected after the hearing” (H7181). John the Baptist preached to crowds of people prior to Jesus’ ministry. John’s message was simple, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). It says in Matthew 4:17, after Jesus’ ministry began, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The Greek word that is translated repent, metanoeo (met-an-o-ehˊ-o) means “to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider” (G3340). Repentance has to do with changing one’s mind. Manasseh did not repent of his sin, therefore, the LORD brought upon him the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, “who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon” (2 Chronicles 33:11).

Second Chronicles 33:12-13 tells us about Manasseh:

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

Manasseh learned from his experience of being taken into captivity that the LORD was God. Afterward, he changed his mind, and decided to humble himself greatly before the God of his fathers (2 Chronicles 33:12).

Manasseh’s repentance resulted in him being restored to his position as king of Judah. Afterward, Manasseh “took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:15-16). The actions that Manasseh took demonstrated that his repentance was genuine and that he was willing to do what God expected of him. Manasseh started doing the opposite of what he had been doing before, making it clear to everyone that he had changed his mind during his captivity in Babylon.