Saturday, February 17, 2024

Manasseh - Jehoiakim

by Damien F. Mackey Manasseh 2 Chronicles 33:11: “Yahweh then brought down on them the generals of the king of Assyria's army who captured Manasseh with hooks, put him in chains and took him to Babylon”. Jehoiakim 2 Chronicles 36-5-6: “Jehoiakim … did what is displeasing to Yahweh his God. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him, loaded him with chains and took him to Babylon”. These two texts, I submit, are describing the very same incident. Note the common points: Yahweh; attack by a mighty foe; king of Judah defeated; that king loaded with chains; and taken off to Babylon. Now, in my article: De-coding Jonah (6) De-coding Jonah | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu I identified Manasseh as Jehoiakim, the murderer of the prophet Uriah (just as legend has Isaiah martyred by Manasseh). And I identified Esarhaddon-Ashurbanipal as Nebuchednezzar. The note in The Jerusalem Bible (33 b, 2 Chr 34) follows the conventional view that Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal were separate kings: “Manasseh of Judah was a vassal of Esarhaddon (680-669) and of Assurbanipal (668-633)”. Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal were the same and only once captured king Manasseh of Judah.

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