And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
Manasseh's reign had filled Jerusalem with terrible evil. This verse is God's answer, spoken while the king still sat on the throne. Two builder's tools and one kitchen image carry the whole message. God will measure Jerusalem by the standard that already condemned others, and then empty her.
The Measure Already Used on Samaria
The measuring line and the plumb line are borrowed from two ruins the people knew well. Samaria was the northern capital. It had already fallen, and Ahab's royal family had already perished. Now God holds the same tools against Jerusalem. One writer shows how plain the warning should have been:
C KnappIt was a horrifying accusation, but a completely just one, and it should have brought the nation to repentance. Its threats, if nothing else, should have shocked them out of their sins. They knew what had happened to Samaria — it had already fallen. Jerusalem would receive the same punishment. The house of Ahab had perished, and their kings would not escape a similar judgment.
Why a Builder's Tool
Scripture takes an everyday building tool and makes it a picture of judgment:
Morrish Bible DictionaryA plumb line is a simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or another weight tied to a string. It tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It pictures the exactness of the judgment God brought on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall with a plumb line, and with a plumb line He would pull it down.
Wiped and Turned Upside Down
The second image comes from the kitchen. You do not rinse a dish and leave it standing; you wipe it out and turn it over, empty. Manasseh's long reign of fifty-five years might have suggested God had lost interest:
Leslie M. GrantThis judgment of Jerusalem would be no less severe than the judgment on Samaria and the house of Ahab. Jerusalem would be wiped clean, the way someone wipes a dish and turns it upside down. Manasseh may have reigned for 55 years (v.1), but that made no difference to the certainty of God's judgment. People too often mistake God's patience for indulgence or indifference. Yet the longer He shows patience, the more awesome and terrible we can expect His judgment to be.
A Sentence Beyond Appeal
God had not stopped speaking to Judah. But His word now carried one message only:
H. L. RossierManasseh's deeds called for judgment, but God was not yet done with His testimony in Judah… God's Word still remains the only resource in these difficult times. Yet it says nothing except that judgment is coming on the people, judgment from which there is no appeal.
Centuries in the Making
The verse names Manasseh, but the account reaches back much further:
W. W. FeredayThe nation's cup of sin had been filling up for centuries. Manasseh's defiance of God's Word and his extreme evil made that cup overflow… They had provoked their God to anger "since the day their fathers came out of Egypt." So the evil was persistent and hopeless.
Delayed, Not Cancelled
Josiah, Manasseh's grandson, later led a national reform. It bought time; it did not undo the sentence spoken here. "Lo-ammi" means "not my people" — the name God uses when He disowns:
J. N. DarbyThe Holy Spirit shows us God's dealings with Judah, governed by the conduct of their kings, until God has said, "Lo-ammi." This had already been announced because of Manasseh's terrible sins, and Josiah's piety could not change the just judgment of God.
The Word Carried Out — and What Follows It
God did what He had said. But the God who announced the ruin also announced a return:
J. N. DarbyGod had already carried out His word… Yet even as He was leaving Jerusalem, He announced deliverance and blessing, just as He did before driving our first parents out of Eden. He said: "I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel," Ezek. 11:17.
Manasseh himself met a different end:
Morrish Bible DictionaryGod brought the king of Assyria against Manasseh, who bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. There Manasseh, in his suffering, humbled himself deeply and prayed to the Lord his God. God heard his prayer and brought him back to Jerusalem… He is often held up as an example of God's marvellous grace in Old Testament times, as Saul of Tarsus and the thief on the cross are given under the New Testament.
Summary
- Measured — the line and plumb line show the exactness of God's judgment. The wall He built up, He takes down by the same standard.
- Precedent — that standard had already levelled Samaria and Ahab's house. Judah could see her own future in their ruins.
- Patience — fifty-five years of evil reign showed God's patience, not His indifference. That patience reached back to the exodus.
- Emptied — the dish is wiped out and turned over. Josiah's reform could not cancel the judgment.
- Mercy — the sentence on the nation stood. Yet God promised to gather His people again, and the king who provoked the sentence found grace in captivity.