2 Kings 24:4

2Ki 24:4 And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.

Ver. 4. And also for the innocent blood.] Of this crying sin Jehoahaz also and Jehoiakim were deeply guilty. {Jer 22:17 Eze 19:1-14}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24:4 innocent blood: Tradition holds that Manasseh murdered the prophet Isaiah by sawing him in two (cp. Heb 11:37).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

the Lord would not pardon--(see on Kg2 23:26; Jer 15:1).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(4) The innocent blood.—Heb., blood of the innocent; an expression like hand of the right, i.e., the right hand; or, day of the sixth, i.e., the sixth day. Thenius thinks the murder of some prominent personage, such as Isaiah, may be intended, and wishes to distinguish between the statement of the first clause of the verse and the second; but 2Ki_21:16, where the two statements are connected more closely, does not favour this view.

Which the Lord would not pardon.—Literally, and Jehovah willed not to pardon. We must not soften the statement of 2Ki_24:3-4, as Bähr does, by asserting the meaning to be that the nation was punished, not for the sins of Manasseh, but for its persistence in the same kind of sins. The sins of Manasseh are regarded as a climax in Judah’s long course of provocation: the cup was full, and judgment ready to fall. It was only suspended for a time, not revoked, in the reign of the good king Josiah. In short, the idea of the writer is that the innocent blood shed by Manasseh cried to heaven for vengeance, and that the ruin of the kingdom was the answer of the All righteous Judge. It is no objection to say, that in that case children suffered for their fathers’ misdeeds; that was precisely the Old Testament doctrine, until Ezekiel proclaimed another (Eze_18:19; comp. Exo_20:5; Deu_5:9). Looking at the catastrophe from a different standpoint, we may remember that national iniquities must be chastised in the present life, if at all; and that the sufferings of the exile were necessary for the purification of Israel from its inveterate tendency to apostatise from Jehovah.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. which [R.V. and] the Lord would not pardon] The example, set for so long a time, had so penetrated the national character, that Jehovah, who multiplies His pardon (Isa_55:7), could bear with the transgressions no longer. We gather from Chronicles that Jehoiakim did evil like his predecessors. His abominations that he did, and that which was found in him (probably meaning, the evil found in his ways), were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And also for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood,.... See Kg2 21:16 which cruel usage of the prophets, and servants of the Lord, was still continued; see Jer 26:21,

which the Lord would not pardon; he pardoned the sins of Manasseh, who repented, but not the sins of those persons who imitated him, but repented not; or though he personally pardoned the sins of Manasseh, so that he was saved everlastingly, yet the temporal punishment of the nation for those sins, in which they were involved with him, was not averted.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For the innocent blood, to wit, of those prophets and saints who either reproved or would not comply with his idolatrous worship.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And also for the innocent blood that he shed. (comp. 2Ki_21:16, and the comment ad loc.) Like the other "sins of Manasseh," the shedding of innocent blood continued, both in the Moloch offerings (Jer_7:31) and in the persecution of the righteous. (Jer_7:6, Jer_7:9, etc.) Urijah was actually put to death by Jehoiakim; (Jer_26:23) Jeremiah narrowly escaped. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon. Blood "cries to God from the ground" on which it falls, (Gen_4:11) and is "required" at the hands of the bloodshedder (Gen_9:5) unfailingly. Especially is the blood of saints slain for their religion avenged and exacted by the Most High. (see Rev_6:10 Rev_11:18 Rev_16:6 Rev_19:2, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.