Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 33:11
So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records that Yahweh acts upon Manasseh and his people immediately after they refuse to heed His spoken warning. The event occurs chronologically between the ignored prophecy and Manasseh’s subsequent distress.
The words — The verb וַיָּבֵא (va-yā-ḇē') literally means "and he brought," marking Yahweh as the direct cause of the military advance. The noun שָׂרֵי (śā-rê) translates to "commanders," identifying the specific officers serving the Assyrian king.
The thread — The mechanism of foreign armies executing divine judgment aligns with the exile warnings in Deuteronomy 28:36. The specific detail of bronze shackles for transport to Babylon reappears in the narrative of 2 Chronicles 36:6.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to accept that historical conquests function as direct instruments of divine action. It demands acknowledgment that persistent refusal to listen precedes unavoidable, physical consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:36 The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone.
- 2 Chronicles 36:6 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
- 1 Samuel 13:6 Seeing that they were in danger because their troops were hard-pressed, the men of Israel hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.
- 2 Kings 23:33 And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned Jehoahaz at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
- 2 Kings 25:6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him.
- Nehemiah 9:32 So now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God who keeps His gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, and upon our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.
- Nehemiah 9:37 Its abundant harvest goes to the kings You have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress.
- Job 36:8 And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction,
- Psalms 107:10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,
- Isaiah 5:26 He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!