Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, was as unlike Hezekiah, as Hezekiah was unlike his father Ahaz. Only twelve years old when he began to reign, he was king longer than any other of the sons of David, 55 years reigning at Jerusalem.
Going directly contrary to his father's godly ways, Manasseh restored idolatrous high places, altars and "groves" (Asherahs), and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them; he built altars in the temple, in both courts of it, not to God, but to the supposed gods of the sun, moon and stars; he caused his children to pass through the fire, used magic and divination and sorcery, appointed necromancers and soothsayers, wrought evil beyond measure in the sight of the Lord. Finally he set graven image of the idol he made, in the house of God. Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations that God had destroyed from before the children of Israel.
A long suffering God spoke to Manasseh and to his people, perhaps by the prophet Nahum; the Scriptures do not enlighten us as to what prophets followed Isaiah, Hosea and Micah, and preceeded Zephaniah and Habakkuk.
As God's Word was refused, the Assyrians were brought again to humble Judah, and Manasseh was bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon. There, in affliction, he prayed to God, and humbled himself greatly, and God hearkened in grace, overlooking his very sinful past, and caused him to be brought again to Jerusalem to reign.
Considering Manasseh's sins, as recounted both in 2 Kings 21, and our chapter, we can but marvel at the grace of God; he is one of the very few of whom Scripture tells of true repentance after a life of sin.
As in the apostle Paul's case, we see that the chief of sinners may be saved; there is no limit to the power of God, and His grace can break down the hardest heart. When that grace really reaches the heart, it changes the man or woman, the boy or girl, whom God has brought to the knowledge of Himself as a Saviour.
Manasseh was only a boy of twelve when he was left without a father, and a very godly one too, but his son Amon, who succeeded him on the throne, was twenty-two when he became king. But only two years was he on the throne—two years of evil after the pattern of his father, though he did not humble himself like his father, his servants put an end to him in his own house, and Josiah became king at the age of eight.
Brief record and most solemn warning to the young, this life of Amon; at twenty two life must have seemed at its brightest, and he was cut off without mercy in two short years.