Bible Strands
2 Kings 21:16
Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the conclusion of King Manasseh’s reign after God’s warning that Judah’s persistent evil has provoked divine judgment. The account follows God’s declaration of coming destruction and precedes the note that Manasseh’s full record is preserved in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
The words — The Hebrew דָּם נָקִי (dam naqi) literally means “innocent blood,” emphasizing that the victims were blameless and the violence was unjustified. The verb שָׁפַךְ (shafoch) denotes the act of shedding, underscoring the deliberate and widespread nature of the killings.
The thread — This condemnation of unjust bloodshed echoes the Mosaic law that murder pollutes the land and defies atonement (Numbers 35:33), while the chronicler later confirms Manasseh’s role in leading Jerusalem into greater evil (2 Chronicles 33:9). The narrative thread connects royal wickedness to national defilement across the historical books.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that systemic violence against the innocent corrupts a community and provokes divine judgment. It requires the reader to confront the concrete consequences of leadership that normalizes evil rather than offering comfort or excuse.
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
Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Cross-references
- Numbers 35:33 Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- 2 Kings 21:11 “Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these abominations, acting more wickedly than the Amorites who preceded him, and with his idols has caused Judah to sin,
- 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.
- Exodus 32:21 “What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”
- Deuteronomy 21:8 Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.
- 1 Kings 14:15 For the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking the LORD to anger.
- 2 Kings 21:7 Manasseh even took the carved Asherah pole he had made and set it up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
- 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,
- Jeremiah 2:34 Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things
- Jeremiah 7:6 if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,