Verse 11
Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
To Babylon — The king of Babylon is here called the king of Assyria, because he had added Assyria to his empire, who having been informed by his ambassadors of the great riches which were in Hezekiah's treasures at Jerusalem, and being assured of Manasseh's degeneracy from the piety of his father, and from that God whose power alone made Hezekiah formidable, he thought this a fit season to invade Manasseh's kingdom. The Jews say, in the twenty second year of his reign.
Verse 12
And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
Besought — It becomes sinners to humble themselves before that God, whom they have offended. It becomes sufferers to humble themselves before him that corrects them, and to accept of the punishment of their iniquity.
Verse 17
Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the LORD their God only.
Still — Manasseh could not carry the reformation so far as he had carried the corruption. It is an easy thing to debauch men's manners; but not so easy to reform them again.
Verse 18
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel.
Of Israel — Of Judah, often called Israel, he speaks not of the book of Kings, for these things are not mentioned there, but of their publick records, whence the most important things were taken by the prophets, and put into those canonical books.
Verse 19
His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.
Hosai — A writer so called.