2 Kings 21:7

FURTHER REPORT OF MANASSEH'S SINS AND ABOMINATIONS

"And he set the graven image of Ashera, that he had made, in the house of which Jehovah said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever; neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel."

"The graven image of Ashera, in the house of Jehovah" (2 Kings 21:7). Hammond wrote that, "Probably he placed that lust-exciting emblem of Astarte, which was a most horrible profanation of all true religion, in the very Holy of Holies itself, turning the truth and grace of God into lasciviousness (Jude 1:1:4)."[7] Keil pointed out that the placement of that image, "Is here mentioned as the very worst,"[8] of the sins of Manasseh.

"Manasseh seduced them to do ... evil more than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel" (2 Kings 21:9), This parallels what Ezekiel said of both Judah and Israel (2 Kings 16), that their sins exceeded the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. Right here, therefore, is the reason why God found it necessary to reject and destroy both Israel and Judah. The impartial justice of God would have been compromised by any other procedure. The announcement that God would indeed execute such penalties upon the Chosen People was made at once, not by the priests, and not by that mythical Deuteronomist, but by "the prophets of God."