“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 .”
My Notes
What Does 2 Chronicles 33:19 Mean?
2 Chronicles 33:19 is a footnote that doubles as a theological bombshell: "His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin, and his trespass... before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers."
The verse references a now-lost document — the sayings of the seers (or of Hozai) — that contained something extraordinary: Manasseh's prayer. The prayer of the worst king in Judah's history, offered from exile in Babylon, in humility so genuine that God was "intreated of him" — the Hebrew vaye'ather lo means God allowed Himself to be moved, allowed Himself to be entreated, let the prayer change His posture.
The structure of the verse is deliberate: his prayer and how God responded, then his sin and his trespass and all the places he built high places and set up idols — before he was humbled. The Chronicler lays out the full ledger: the prayer and the sin side by side. He doesn't hide Manasseh's wickedness to make the redemption look easy. He displays both — the depth of the corruption and the reality of the restoration — and lets the contrast speak.
The apocryphal "Prayer of Manasseh" attempts to reconstruct what this lost document might have contained. But the canonical text preserves the more powerful testimony: the prayer existed. God heard it. The record was kept.
Reflection Questions
- 1.If God heard Manasseh's prayer after everything he did, what excuse could you possibly have for not approaching God with yours?
- 2.'God was intreated of him' — God allowed Himself to be moved. Does that challenge your view of God as immovable or unapproachable after serious sin?
- 3.The Chronicler displays the sin and the prayer side by side. Why is it important to see both — the depth of the corruption and the reality of the restoration?
- 4.Is there something in your past that you've believed disqualifies your prayers? How does Manasseh's story speak to that belief?
Devotional
Manasseh prayed. The man who burned his son alive. Who filled the temple with pagan altars. Who provoked God more deliberately than any king before or after him. That man prayed — and God was moved.
"God was intreated of him" — He let Himself be entreated. He allowed the prayer to change His posture. The Hebrew is almost tender: God was accessible to Manasseh's plea. Not because Manasseh deserved access. Because God chose to be accessible. The same God who was provoked to anger allowed Himself to be moved by repentance.
The Chronicler lists both sides without flinching: the prayer and the sin. The restoration and the record of every high place, every grove, every graven image. Nothing is hidden. Nothing is sanitized. The worst résumé in Judah's history sits next to the evidence of genuine repentance, and the reader is left to marvel at the gap between what Manasseh was and what grace made possible.
"Before he was humbled" — those four words carry the entire timeline. Everything terrible happened before. The humbling divided Manasseh's life into two eras: before and after. And the after was written by a God who let the prayer of the worst king reach Him.
If you've ever thought your sin disqualifies you from praying — if you've looked at what you've done and decided God won't hear you — Manasseh's story dismantles that. His prayer was recorded. His repentance was preserved. His sin was the worst on record and God was intreated of him. Whatever you've done, Manasseh probably did worse. And God heard him. He'll hear you.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house,.... That is, in the garden of his house; see…
The seers - Most moderns adopt the translation given in the margin of the Authorized Version, making Hosai (or rather,…
His prayer also - What is called the Prayer of Manasseh, king of Judah, when he was holden captive in Babylon, being…
We have seen Manasseh by his wickedness undoing the good that his father had done; here we have him by repentance…
groves and graven images, before he was humbled R.V. the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself.
among…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture