Tag Archives: Innocent blood

2 Kings 21 The Wicked Reigns of Manasseh and Amon of Judah

2 Kings 21: 1-18 The Wicked Reign of King Manasseh of Judah

¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ² He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, following the abominable practices of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal, made a sacred pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.” ⁵ He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. ⁶ He made his son pass through fire; he practiced soothsaying and augury and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. ⁷ The carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever; ⁸ I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave to their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹ But they did not listen; Manasseh misled them to do more evil than the nations had done that the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
¹⁰ The LORD said by his servants the prophets, ¹¹ “Because King Manasseh of Judah has committed these abominations, has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols, ¹² therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ¹³ I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line for Samaria and the plummet for the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will cast off the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies; they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies ¹⁵ because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their ancestors came out of Egypt even to this day.”
¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he caused Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
¹⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, all that he did and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁸ Manasseh slept with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza. His son Amon succeeded him.

Manasseh in 2 Kings is the paradigm of the wicked king. Not only is he articulated as the ultimate cause of the exile of the Judeans under Babylon in 2 Kings and Jeremiah[1]but he is placed in parallel with Ahab who was the king who opposed the prophet Elijah and led Israel astray. At the same time Manasseh has an exceptionally long reign, the longest of any of the Davidic kings. For the narrator of 2 Kings any events during this fifty-five-year reign are secondary to the practices of idolatry and violence that Manasseh led Judah to practice.

From Assyrian records we know that Manasseh was a vassal king and provided soldiers for Assyria’s campaign against Egypt. (Cogan, 1988, p. 265) Rabbinical sources highlight that Manasseh’s young age means he was born after Hezekiah’s illness and they speculate that Hezekiah did not have children before then. Yet Hezekiah would be age forty-two at that point and it is unlikely that Manasseh was his first born. It is more likely that Manasseh was selected at a young age to be amenable either to the Assyrian king or forces within Jerusalem. A twelve-year-old king would need support as his long reign begins.

When I read 2 King’s narration of the change between Hezekiah and Manasseh it makes me suspicious that something is rotten in Jerusalem for things to change so rapidly. Some commentaries connect the actions of Manasseh with the expectations of being a vassal of Assyria, but the actions that are listed are the practices of the surrounding Canaanites which have plagued Israel throughout its history. It is possible that Manasseh integrated some of the worship of Assyrian gods and certainly adopted Assyrian practices and morality, but Assyria is never mentioned in the text. Manasseh intensifies the practices of previous kings who did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD and even exceeded of the nations that were dispossessed from the land by God when they entered the promised land. (Deuteronomy 9:5) The entirety of the accusation against Manasseh combines the continual witness of prophets throughout the narrative of 2 Kings with the Deuteronomic prohibitions, particularly Deuteronomy 18: 9-14.

The result of this long period of practices abhorrent to the LORD brings a judgment against Judah. The language of making the ears tingle echoes the judgment on the house of Eli.[2] To this is added the language of the plummet and measuring line[3] where now Judah becomes like Ahab, reaching the end of their dynasty. Finally, Jerusalem is wiped like a dish. The term rendered “wipe” in English is the verb for “blot out” or “exterminate” which carries far more force. (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 533) Although the language is rough, God is heartbroken by the actions of the people under Manasseh, heartbroken to the point where the relationship cannot continue without a break. God’s patience has finally come to a breaking point.

The main force of the judgment of 2 Kings against Manasseh is focused on the idolatry the king leads the nation into, but before closing it highlights the second accusation: the spilling of innocent blood. Innocent blood is an important theme in the law from Abel’s innocent blood calling out from the earth (Genesis 4:10) to Deuteronomy’s instructions on how to deal with an unsolvable murder (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). Innocent blood is frequently paired with the persecution of the vulnerable in the prophets.[4] The kings were supposed to prevent the shed of innocent blood, but as Micah can accuse:

⁹Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
and pervert all equity,
¹⁰ who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with wrong!
¹¹ Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
“Surely the Lord is with us!
No harm shall come upon us.” Micah 3:9-11

The innocent blood likely included the vulnerable and political opponents but also those who opposed Manasseh’s religious policies. Talmud states that the prophet Isaiah was killed under Manasseh’s instructions.

In 2 Kings Manasseh is wicked until the end and he is the only king whose sin is mentioned in the final summary of his reign. It is worth noting that in the parallel narrative in 2 Chronicles 33 Manasseh repents at the end of his life. Ultimately for the narrator of 2 Kings if there is any repentance it is too little and too late. In Rabbinic tradition Manasseh is one of three kings excluded from the afterlife, along with Jeroboam and Ahab. (Israel, 2019, p. 322)

2 Kings 21: 19-26 The Brief Reign of King Amon of Judah

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ He walked in all the way in which his father walked, served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them; ²² he abandoned the LORD, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. ²³ The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his house. ²⁴ But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in place of him. ²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶ He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; then his son Josiah succeeded him.

After the long and disastrous, in the eyes of 2 Kings, reign of Manasseh is the short but still wicked reign of his son Amon. The description of his two-year reign is consumed with relating the conspiracy which leads to the end of his life and his reign. The significant oscillation between the faithfulness of Hezekiah’s reign and the odious nature of Manasseh’s reign likely means that there are groups and beliefs competing for the loyalty of the people and in our story two groups, the servants of the king and the people of the land are mentioned. As Walter Brueggemann describes it, “Amon is yet one more victim of a deep and abiding dispute over the shape and character of Israel.” (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 540)The assassination of Amon and the anointing of the boy king Josiah allows the pendulum to swing once more to loyalty to the LORD the God of Israel and the covenant and a stay of the execution of God’s judgment.

[1] Jeremiah 15: 1-4; 2 Kings 23: 26-27; 24: 3-4.

[2] 1 Samuel 3:11, see also Jeremiah 19:3.

[3] Isaiah 34:11; Lamentations 2:8.

[4] See Jeremiah 7:6; 22:3; Ezekiel 22: 6-8, 25-27.

Matthew 27:1-14 Blood Money, The Potters Field, and an Amazed Pilate

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Antonio Ciseri, *Ecce Homo (Behold the Man)* between 1860 and 1880

Matthew 27:1-14

Parallel Mark 15:1-5; Luke 23: 1-5; John 18: 29-38; Acts 1:15-20

When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. ² They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.[1]

³ When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesuswas condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocentblood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” ⁵ Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. ⁶ But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” ⁷ After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. ⁸ For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah,”And they tookthe thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set,on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, ¹⁰ and they gavethem for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”

¹¹ Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” ¹² But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” ¹⁴ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has presented the kingdom of heaven as an alternative to the ways of the Roman Empire and the ways in which the religious authorities, who opposed him, had adapted to their place within that empire. Judas may have handed over innocent blood cheaply, but even Judas repents in the end while these religious leaders remain indifferent to the way they have failed to embody the justice that the God of Israel expects of the people in the law. Both the religious leaders and the Procurator of Rome[2] are aligned against Jesus and both participate in the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet, both ironically bear witness to portions of Jesus’ identity, and their words speak a portion of the truth.

The narrative slows down, spending more time on the events of this day, but the timing of the events of the crucifixion happens between the morning and afternoon. The gathered chief priests and elders consult/plot together to bring about Jesus’ death, and for his death to occur within the confines of the civil law they must allow Pilate to sentence Jesus to death. The crucifixion scene shows that something can be in accordance with the civil rule of the Roman empire or the religious leader’s interpretation of the Torah and still be unrighteous. The religious leaders may declare Jesus guilty of blasphemy but here even Judas know he has become the one to hand over innocent blood.

Only Matthew relates the repentance of Judas. Luke, in the book of Acts, will relate the story of Judas’ death and the naming of the field of blood, but Matthew interrupts the fast-moving progress of Jesus’ approaching hearing before Pilate with Judas’ confrontation of the chief priests and the elders. Judas perhaps understands that his fate has been linked to those who have opposed Jesus, and just as the woes of chapter 23 and the woe spoken about the ‘handing over one’ at the Last Supper are heard together, so now Judas now understands that he stands under curse for betraying innocent blood. As the law states, ““Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.” All the people shall say, “Amen.”” (Deuteronomy 27:25)[3] Judas’ agonized confession is met by the callous indifference of the chief priests and the elders. Jesus’ innocence will be emphasized multiple times throughout this scene, and while the innocence or guilt of Jesus is not a concern for the religious leaders, as Matthew portrays them, the propriety of accepting ‘blood money’, money they gave to Judas, into the temple treasury shows the way their use of the law, in Matthew’s view, has been corrupted.

This final explicit reference to scripture is often viewed as garbled since unlike the remaining explicit quotations this text brings together Zechariah 11:13 as well as the theme of Jeremiah 32:6-15, and Jeremiah 18:1-11. Zechariah 11 has the LORD judging the sheep merchants who have sold the flock (Israel) to be slaughtered for their own profit. Zechariah, speaking to sheep merchants (leaders), says:

I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not keep them.” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it into the treasury”—this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw it into the treasury in the house of the LORD. (Zechariah 11:12-13)

But Matthew, I believe intentionally, links this to Jeremiah’s action of buying a field of Anathoth during the siege of Jerusalem as an action of hope beyond the destruction of the moment. Matthew seems to have access to significant portions of scripture, although it is possible that he would not have a physical copy of Zechariah or Jeremiah or that he would rely upon memory in this quotation. But Matthew has also shown a willingness to pair portions of scripture to bring together two stories in an allusion, and perhaps he again brings together the unfaithfulness of the current shepherds of the temple with the hope beyond judgments of Jeremiah. This is strengthened when you add in the reference to the potter, which evokes Jeremiah 18:1-11 where the potter at the wheel becomes a metaphor for God’s ability to reshape Israel from something broken to something good.

Jesus appears before Pilate the morning after his apprehension, and once more he is handed over to another authority. The silence of Jesus may allude to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:7-8:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of the people.

On a narrative level, Jesus allows others to ironically give him titles which confirm a portion of his identity. Pilate’s title for Jesus as ‘the King of the Jews’ is not incorrect otherwise Matthew would omit the numerous references to Son of David or Messiah/Christ throughout the narrative, but for Matthew the title only tells a part of the story. Jesus replies that this title, which Pilate uses, are essentially ‘your words.’ They may not be Jesus’ words but that does not make them incorrect. The religious leaders’ accusations may also be their words, which may not be the way Jesus would articulate them but they may also be ironically correct. Pilate’s amazement may be that Jesus does not deny these words and accusations, that he may be willing to accept these titles which the Jewish leaders consider heresy. Matthew has spent much of the gospel giving us words to understand who Jesus is and narrative which help us to understand what these titles mean when referencing Jesus. Throughout the passion narrative, the actions of the crucifixion also give meaning to these words and titles and recast the way terms like Christ/Messiah, Son of David, Son of God, Son of Man, and Lord need to be heard by those who follow Jesus to the cross and beyond.

[1] Throughout this portion of Matthew, the title used for Pilate is the Greek hegemon where the English word ‘hegemony’ comes from. This word generally means one with authority over others, and while Pilate’s official title was probably Procurator or Prefect, Matthew uses this more general word for his role.

[2] Although many translations render Pilate’s title as governor, Judea once Rome assumed direct control in 6 CE, was viewed as a ‘satellite’ of the Province of Syria with a lower ranking Prefect or Procurator reigning on behalf of Rome. The military might in the region was concentrated in Syria at this time as a deterrent against the Parthian Empire.

[3] The concept of innocent blood is important in the law and several of the places where it is treated in the law will echo in the upcoming scenes: Deuteronomy 19:10-13, and Deuteronomy 21:1-9 This concept of innocent blood also emerges in both Wisdom literature and the prophets including: Psalm 106, Proverbs 1:11, 6:16-18; Isaiah 59, Jeremiah 7, 19, 22, and 26.

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular