2 Chronicles 33 Bible study: He humbled himself greatly

"Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem" (33:1). The chapter's verdict comes at once: "He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, after the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel" (33:2). Then it names what he undid: "For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down" (33:3); the Hebrew verb behind built again comes back in 33:13 (tap brought him again). He "raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them" (33:3). He built altars in the LORD's house (33:4-5), and "He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom" (33:6), which the law had forbidden (Deuteronomy 18:10). He set "the engraved image of the idol" in God's house (33:7) (tap idol), the house of which God had said, "I will put my name forever" (33:7). The same word promised not to remove Israel from the land, "if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them" (33:8). The section ends with the people: "Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel" (33:9) (tap seduced).

2 Chronicles 33:13→leads toLuke 15:10

Of Manasseh the chapter says, "Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel" (33:9). Then, "When he was in distress, he begged the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers" (33:12), and "He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom" (33:13). When the Pharisees and the scribes said of Jesus, "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them" (Luke 15:2), he told of a woman who lost a coin and found it (Luke 15:8-9), and said, "Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting" (Luke 15:10). Jesus doesn't cite 2 Chronicles 33, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: one who had gone far in sin turning back, and being received. Some hear in Jesus' words the same welcome the LORD gave Manasseh when he humbled himself. Others read Luke 15:10 in its own setting, Jesus' answer to those who murmured that he welcomes sinners (Luke 15:1-2), and 33:12-13 as the LORD's dealing with one king of Judah, and don't look from one to the other.

כָּנַעkana'say ka-NA

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be humble", and in the form here, "humble oneself". Strong's: "properly, to bend the knee; hence, to humiliate". The chapter uses it four times, in three verses. Manasseh "humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers" (33:12); his sins are written, "before he humbled himself" (33:19); and Amon "didn’t humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself" (33:23). 33:12 is the seventh verse of 2 Chronicles in the WEB to say "humble" or "humbled", and in all seven the Hebrew is this verb. The first is the LORD's word to Solomon: "if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves" (7:14). The one just before 33:12 is Manasseh's father: "However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart" (32:26).