2 Kings 21:1 - Exposition

Manasaeh was twelve years old. Manasseh was thus not born till three years after Hezekiah's dangerous illness, or till the year B.C. 710. Hezekiah may have given him the name in the spirit in which Joseph gave it to his firstborn ( Genesis 41:51 ), because God, in at last blessing him with a son, had "made him forget" his dangerous illness, with the griefs and regrets that accompanied it. "Manasseh" means "Forgetting." When he began to reign —in B.C. 698 or 697, the seventh or eighth year of Sennacherib— and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. So the author of Chronicles ( 2 Chronicles 33:1 ) and Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 10.3. § 2). The reign exceeds in length that of any other King of Judah or Israel. And his mother's name was Hephzibah. "Hephzibah" means "My delight is in her." Isaiah gives it as a name of honor to the restored Jerusalem ( Isaiah 62:4 ). It has been conjectured that, as queen-mother, Hephzibah was regent during her son's minority. But there is no trace of her regency either in Kings or Chronicles.