2 Kings 21:1

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

2 Kings 21:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 21:1

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign
So that he was born three years after Hezekiah's recovery from his sickness, and in the seventeenth year of his reign:

and reigned fifty five years in Jerusalem:
among which must be reckoned the time of his captivity in Babylon; his reign was the longest of any of the kings of Judah: and his mother's name was Hephzibah; the name the church goes by, and signifies, "my delight or pleasure is in her", ( Isaiah 62:4 ) , no doubt she was a good woman, or Hezekiah would not have made choice of her for a wife; it is a tradition of the Jews ^F1, that she was the daughter of Isaiah, whose name, they say, is not mentioned, because so wicked a king was unworthy of such a grandfather.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Hieron. Trad. Heb. in lib. Paralipom. fol. 86. F.

2 Kings 21:1 In-Context

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

2 He did what the Lord said was wrong. He did the hateful things the other nations had done -- the nations that the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of the Israelites.

3 Manasseh's father, Hezekiah, had destroyed the places where gods were worshiped, but Manasseh rebuilt them. He built altars for Baal, and he made an Asherah idol as Ahab king of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped all the stars of the sky and served them.

4 The Lord had said about the Temple, "I will be worshiped in Jerusalem," but Manasseh built altars in the Temple of the Lord.

5 He built altars to worship the stars in the two courtyards of the Temple of the Lord.