After King Solomon’s death, the kingdom of Israel split into two countries (Judah and Israel). Most of 1 Kings and 2 Kings is the story of the aftermath—with Israel and Judah having kings of varying quality and devotion to God.
In both nations, whoever was king directed whether the people followed God or idols. Four particular generations of kings, who reigned in Judah under the threat of Assyria and later Babylon invading them, show how unstable this arrangement could be.
Two of these kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, reformed the kingdom’s practices of idol worship and led the Israelites in worshipping their Lord. Between the reign of these holy kings, King Manasseh and King Amon encouraged evil, God-forbidden idol worship.
King Amon, third in the line of kings descended from David, did not learn anything from his righteous grandfather as far as worshipping God went. Amon also did not inherit his father’s repentant spirit and sense of humility. Instead, Amon was an evil king throughout his (surprisingly short) reign. His son Josiah, however, would renew the Hebrew people’s worship of their God.
Where Does the Bible Mention Amon?
2 Kings 21:19-26 tells a brief version of Amon’s reign, and the text about Amon is nearly identical in 2 Chronicles 33:21-25. Amon became king of Judah after his father’s death. His reign was in the decade following 640 B.C.E.
In about 722 B.C.E., Assyria took prominent people of the northern kingdom of Israel captive and threatened to overthrow King Amon’s southern kingdom of Judah. King Amon paid duty to Assyria to fend off an attack from the Assyrians.
Some Bible scholars, such as Abraham Malamat in “History of Biblical Israel: Major Problems and Minor Issues,” assert that Amon was assassinated only two years into his reign because his people disliked his homage to Assyria.
Playing politics and worshipping pagan gods (including human sacrifice rituals), Amon was perhaps the worst, evilest king of Judah (though his father Manasseh was a tough competitor for that title before he repented).
What Other Kings Reigned Before Amon?
Amon’s grandfather, King Hezekiah, reigned from 715 to 687 B.C.E. In contrast to his son and grandson, Hezekiah was a godly ruler who removed the “high places” of idol worship. He recognized one God (2 Kings 19:19) and led Hebrews in Judah in worshipping God.
Manasseh and Amon, who succeeded Hezekiah from 687 B.C.E. to about 640 B.C.E., were generally not followers of the Hebrew faith. Royal families raised these kings to be “hotbeds of worldly ambition.” Manasseh’s pagan worship set the tone for King Amon’s evil reign of power (2 Kings 20:21).
Manasseh became King of Judah when he was 12 years old and reigned in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, for 55 years (2 Kings 21:1-6). Under Manasseh, Judah’s people become eviler than the other nations the Lord had destroyed to protect the Israelites (2 Kings 21:9): “In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he [Manasseh] built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking Him to anger” (2 Kings 21:5-6). Prophets warned Manasseh that the Lord would destroy Judah as punishment for its waywardness (2 Kings 21:14-15).
At age 22, Amon succeeded his father, Manasseh, as king of Judah. Amon was a young king because of the tradition of inheriting the throne. In the ancient world, and in many nations today, a royal family descendant inherits the throne. The Hebrew people desired to continue the Davidic line of kings, despite evil and ambitious Manasseh, and approved of Amon as king.
Why Was Amon’s Reign So Short?
As mentioned earlier, Amon reigned for only two years. In fact, his own court officials assassinated him. Afterward, the “people of the land” killed the officials responsible for Amon’s assassination (2 Kings 21:23-24). The Bible’s brief account of Amon’s reign indicates there was much political unrest, and some prominent people were not pleased with his policies.
King Amon led his people in the same ungodly idol-worshipping practices as his father but never repented, as Manasseh did. “He walked in all the ways of his father... and did not walk in the way of the Lord” (2 Kings 21:19-22).
Although Amon was killed for falling out of favor, the people of Judah continued to be loyal to the royal line of Hebrew kings beginning with King David. Amon’s family line continued to rule on the throne… and this time, the new king would be even younger than Amon was when he took the throne at 22.
What Did Amon’s Son Josiah Do?
After Amon’s death, the people of the land made King Amon’s eight-year-old son Josiah the next king (2 Kings 21:23-24). The name Josiah in Hebrew means “Healed of the Lord” or “The Lord Will Support,” according to Easton’s Bible Dictionary. Josiah led his people in worshiping the God of Abraham and bringing healing and new faith to the people of Judah. Josiah reformed the pagan religious practices of his father and grandfather (2 Chronicles 33:3-5).
Josiah first oversaw repairing the temple of God in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 34:9-11). While workers were repairing the temple, a priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given to Moses, and Josiah read it to his people. Judeans’ renewed their covenant with God (2 Chronicles 34:29-31). Josiah ended pagan worship practices and celebrated Passover with his people. After Josiah died in 609 B.C.E., however, Judah’s people fell back into the old ways of idol worship.
What Can We Learn from Amon Today?
This Bible history of the Jewish people teaches us that we are not destined to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, whether good or bad. The story of Amon serves as a warning and an encouragement to us. The variety in the kings’ policies about worshipping God or idols indicates that we are individually accountable to God. We make choices as to our beliefs and actions. We can receive God’s forgiveness if we accept His call to change our spirit and actions, as Amon’s father Manasseh did, or we can choose to ignore prophets’ pleas and dire circumstances, as Amon did.
Another lesson from Amon is that leaders are accountable to their constituents, those whom they shepherds. The people of Judah were very unhappy under Amon’s leadership, but he did not heed his citizens’ signs of distress. That led to his assassination and the end of his rule.
Judah’s long history provides a case study on experiencing conflict in our journey as Christians. While God’s chosen people strayed from worshipping their Lord under the leadership of kings, He still provided grace. One leader, Manasseh, found grace under pressure at the end of his life. Two other leaders, Hezekiah and Josiah, reigned with God’s grace for most of their lives. And then there was Amon, the “evilest king,” who did not heed the warnings of his people or God’s prophets. We can respond to God’s voice in any of these ways, but we will carry the consequences.
Yet remember that God said through his prophet Isaiah, who prophesied to King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19:30-31: “Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.”
God is in the business of redeeming what was lost, even in the wake of terrible leaders.
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This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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