Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 33:9
So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative records King Manasseh's actions toward the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem during his reign, immediately following God's conditional warning in 2 Chronicles 33:8 regarding the retention of the land.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיֶּתַע (va.yi.te'a) translates literally as "he led astray," establishing Manasseh as the active agent who turned the population toward wickedness.
The thread — This sequence of royal corruption driving national apostasy recurs in 2 Chronicles 33:2 and 2 Kings 24:3, while Proverbs 29:12 provides the structural principle that a ruler who listens to lies produces wicked officials.
Why it lands — The text states that leadership directly determines communal moral direction, requiring readers to assess how authority figures shape collective behavior and to hold those in power accountable for national outcomes.
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
So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 24:3 Surely this happened to Judah at the LORD’s command, to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done,
- 2 Chronicles 33:2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- Proverbs 29:12 If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.
- Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Deuteronomy 2:21 They were a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites. But the LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place,
- Joshua 24:8 Later, I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your hand, that you should possess their land when I destroyed them before you.
- 1 Kings 14:16 So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”
- 1 Kings 15:26 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.
- 2 Kings 17:8 and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel.
- 2 Kings 21:9 But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.