2 Chronicles 31-36

After the awesome Passover celebration, Hezekiah gets to work tearing down all the idols and altars of other gods. Good work, Hezekiah. But then the Assyrian army approaches! Hezekiah tells his people to stay calm, though, for the Lord is greater than any Assyrian army and will protect them. Assyrian messengers come to the gates of Jerusalem to mock the people for believing Hezekiah. For the Assyrians had conquered many nations and none of their gods protected them. Why would Judah's God be any different? However, sadly, the Chronicler's account of this omits the Curse of the Rabshakeh.*

So Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah pray to God and an angel is sent to wipe out the Assyrian army. The good king Hezekiah then oversees some building projects and eventually dies. His son Manasseh becomes king and is severely evil.

How evil is he? Well, he's so evil that he leads Judah astray and the people do more evil than the indigenous inhabitants of the land that the Lord wiped out when Israel first conquered Canaan. So the Lord allows Manasseh to be taken captive by the Assyrians and taken into exile. However, Manasseh repents** and God rescues him from his plight and returns him to Judah to be king. He does good things in the eyes of the Lord before dying.***

Manasseh dies and his son Amon becomes king. Amon was evil and was killed by conspirators. The people then killed the conspirators and made Josiah king. Josiah did good, tore down foreign idols, and restored the Temple. During the restoration, a lost book of the Law is found, prompting Josiah to follow the edicts of this lost book and hold a swanky Passover festival. Now, this is far more swanky than Hezekiah's Passover. Only Passovers held before the Monarchy begin can compare.

Then Josiah goes to fight against King Neco of Egypt. But Neco says he's on a mission from God (he must have Jake and Elwood in his posse) and that Josiah should leave him alone.**** But Josiah doesn't listen and tries to fight Neco anyway. Josiah is struck by arrows and dies.

The Chronicler wraps up the last of Judah's kings rather quickly. Joehoaz becomes king but is then deposed by the king of Egypt. His brother Eliakim is made king and renamed Jehoiakim. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon takes Jehoiakim into exile and Jehoiachin becomes king. He too is taken into exile and Zedekiah becomes king. Zedekiah leads the people into rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar which incites the wrath of the Babylonians. Jerusalem is razed, the Temple is burned and destroyed, and all the surviving people are taken into exile.

2 Chronicles ends with Cyrus the Great of Persia conquering Babylon and decreeing that the Hebrews may return to their homeland. It ends on a much more pleasant and cheery note than 2 Kings. Unlike the Christian Old Testament, some versions of the Hebrew Bible actually end with 2 Chroniclers, thereby concluding with this optimistic note.


*"But the Rabshakeh said to them, 'Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?'" - 2 Kings 18:27

**This becomes the basis of the Apocryphal book "The Prayer of Manasseh." Does this mean I'm going to have to read and review the Apocrypha now?

***This story of Manasseh's exile, repentance, and becoming a good king has no parallel in 2 Kings. Indeed, Kings points out many times that it's because of Manasseh's grievous sins that God allows the eventual Babylonian exile. So why is this story in Chronicles? Well, whatever the origin, let's examine the message. Even the most evil of evil Judean kings in exile can repent and God will return him to his home and make things all right. To the post-exilic community that the Chronicler was probably writing for, this would be quite the comforting message. CIE!

****The account in 2 Kings doesn't explain Neco's actions as being ordained by God. But here the Chronicler does, thereby justifying the death of such a good king. Why would God allow the good king Josiah to be killed? Because he was disobeying the will of God and did not listen to such prophetic words.