Verse 14
(14) Now after this . . . valley.—Rather, And afterwards he built an outer wall to the city of David westward unto Gihon in the ravine. Manasseh completed the wall begun by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:5). This highly circumstantial account of the public works undertaken by Manasseh after his restoration, is utterly unlike fiction, and almost compels the assumption of a real historical source, no longer extant, from which the whole section has been derived.
Even to the entering in of the fish gate.—The fish-gate lay near the north-east corner of the lower city (Nehemiah 3:3). The direction of the outer wall is described first westward, and then eastward.
And compassed about Ophel.—And surrounded the Ophel (mound); seil., with the wall, which he carried on from the north-east to the south-east. Uzziah and Jotham had already worked upon these fortifications (2 Chronicles 26:9; 2 Chronicles 27:3). Manasseh now finished them, “raising them up to a very great height.”
Raised it—i.e., the outer wall.
And put captains of war.—(Comp. 2 Chronicles 17:2; 2 Chronicles 32:6.) Literally, captains of an army ( sârê chayil).
Of Judah.—Heb., in Judah. Some MSS. and the Vulgale read as the Authorised Version.
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