Amon’s short reign of two years is characterized by the same impiety as that of his father, even more serious, if this is possible, in that as witness of the judgment inflicted upon Manasseh, and of his repentance and forsaking of his idols, he ought to have received instruction for himself. His mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jot-bah. She must have been an Edomite, if Jotbah is the same place as the Jobathah of Israel’s journeys (Num. 33:33; Deut. 10:7). It was not without cause, as we have often said, that our book makes discrete allusions to the maternal origins of the kings throughout. Whatever the case may be, to raise up idols that have been destroyed is even worse in the eyes of Jehovah than to set up new ones. It is an insolent despisal of God after He has revealed Himself to us through His ways and His Word that He might make us forsake that which dishonors Him. To return to such is to act as though God did not exist and had not spoken, and this is also what makes Christendom so guilty. God had separated it from idolatry and its immoral principles; it has returned to these principles, as we see when we compare 2 Timothy 3:1-5 with Romans 1:29-32, and later it will return to idols themselves. Amon “forsook Jehovah the God of his fathers”; such is his sentence. For him there was no place left for repentance. He died a violent death just like the last kings of Israel.
Chapters 22:1-23:30 – Josiah