2 Chronicles 33 · a question people ask
If the LORD heard Manasseh and brought him back, why does 2 Kings say Judah was still removed "for the sins of Manasseh"?
Here are the verses, side by side. 2 Chronicles says, "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). 2 Kings doesn't tell that part. After telling of Josiah, who "turned to the LORD with all his heart" (2 Kings 23:25), it says, "Notwithstanding, the LORD didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him" (2 Kings 23:26), and that Judah was removed "for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did" (2 Kings 24:3), "and also for the innocent blood that he shed" (2 Kings 24:4). 2 Kings 21's honest question set these verses side by side too. Christians read them together in more than one way, and two main ways are set out here, each from its verses; neither is chosen. Both agree that both books tell Manasseh's evil (33:2; 2 Kings 21:2), that only 2 Chronicles tells his humbling (33:12-13), that 2 Kings tells the judgment that followed (2 Kings 23:26; 24:3-4), and that neither book says the other is wrong.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The king was heard, and what he had done went on
Those who read it this way note that the LORD heard Manasseh himself: "he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication" (33:13). They note too that the chapter shows his reign's work outlasting his turning: "Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places" (33:17), and his son "sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made" (33:22). They set it beside David, to whom Nathan said, "The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die" (2 Samuel 12:13), and then, "the child also who is born to you will surely die" (2 Samuel 12:14). On this reading Manasseh was heard and brought back, and 2 Kings 23:26 and 24:3-4 speak of what his reign had already done to Judah, which his turning didn't undo.
2 Chronicles 33:13 · 2 Chronicles 33:17 · 2 Chronicles 33:22 · 2 Samuel 12:13-14 · 2 Kings 23:26 · 2 Kings 24:3-4
Judah was judged for walking on in the way he had led
Those who read it this way note that the chapter names the people with the king: "Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (33:9), and "The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they didn’t listen" (33:10). 2 Kings says he "has also made Judah to sin with his idols" (2 Kings 21:11), and at the end 2 Chronicles says, "Moreover all the chiefs of the priests and the people trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations" (36:14), "until the LORD’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy" (36:16). They set beside it the LORD's word by Ezekiel: "The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father" (Ezekiel 18:20). On this reading "the sins of Manasseh" (2 Kings 24:3) name the evil he began and Judah went on doing, and Judah was judged for its own part in it, while his humbling (33:12-13) is told of him.
2 Chronicles 33:9-10 · 2 Kings 21:11 · 2 Chronicles 36:14 · 2 Chronicles 36:16 · Ezekiel 18:20 · 2 Kings 24:3 · 2 Chronicles 33:12-13
The verses
“He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”
“There was no king like him before him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; and there was none like him who arose after him. Notwithstanding, the LORD didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him.”
“Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came on Judah, to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon.”
“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.”