Citazione Commento su II Re 21:2

Three kings and four commoners have no portion in the world to come:
The three kings are Jeroboam, Ahab, and Manasseh. Rabbi Judah says: “Manasseh has a portion in the world to come, for it says, “He prayed to him, and He granted his prayer, and heard his plea and he restored him to Jerusalem, to his kingdom” (II Chronicles 33:13). They [the sages] said to him: “They restored him to his kingdom, but not to [his portion in] the world to come.” The mishnah lists three wicked Jewish kings who have lost their portions in the world to come: Jeroboam (see I Kings 13:34, 14:10), Ahab (see I Kings 21:21-22) and Manasseh (see II Kings 21:2-3). All of these Kings encouraged idol worship and shed the blood of God’s true prophets. For these sins God specifically warns them that they and their seed will be totally cut off from Israel. Rabbi Judah argues that Manasseh repented and was restored at the end of his days. The Sages retort that his restoration was political but did not restore his place in the world to come. Implied in their argument is that no matter how heinous the crime, repentance even at the end of one’s days can restore one’s place in the world to come.

and it shall not fail; though it tarry it shall not fail to come, though that appointed time may take long to come. wait for it for...; it shall not delay at all after the seventy years. This clause can also be explained to mean: though he tarry, meaning the prophet Jeremiah. Jonathan renders: the prophecy is written and explained in the Book of the Torah. He translated כְּתֹב as כָּתוּב. It has already been alluded to in the Torah (Lev. 26:34): “Then shall the land placate [God concerning] its Sabbaths.” Israel sinned by violating seventy Sabbatical Years, in which they did not release the land, and, corresponding to them, they were exiled therefrom for seventy years. And so it is stated in II Chronicles (36:21): “Until the land placated its Sabbaths; all the days it lay waste, it rested to complete seventy years.” And so you find in Ezekiel (4:5): “And I have given you the years of their iniquity according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days... (verse 6) I gave you a day for a year.” And Scripture says (verse 4): “And you lie on your left side, etc.” You are found saying that Israel provoked God for three hundred and ninety years until the Ten Tribes were exiled, and the tribe of Judah sinned for forty years, and from the time the Ten Tribes were exiled until the destruction of Jerusalem are the twenty-two years of Manasseh. The rest of Manasseh’s years were spent in repentance, for it is stated concerning him (II Kings 21:2f.) “And he did what was evil, etc.,... as Ahab... had made.” Therefore we count Manasseh’s evil years according to the number of Ahab’s years, and he reigned for twenty-two years. With two years of his son Amon’s reign, and eleven of Jehoiakim’s, and eleven of Zedekiah’s, the evil years total forty-six, and this prophecy was said to Ezekiel in the fifth year of Zedekiah. In any case, we find the time of their sinning four hundred and thirty years, for after this prophecy they tarried there six years. [I.e., the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained in the land for six more years] In four hundred years, there are eight Jubilee Years, and in every Jubilee cycle there are seven Release Years, making a total of fifty-six Release Years and eight years consecrated as Jubilee Years making all together sixty-four. In thirty-six years there are five Release Years, totaling sixty-nine consecrated years, and this final Jubilee year is also counted in the number, since it was not completed because of their iniquity. And here, this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Habakkuk: A vision is already written in the Torah, but it is sealed. You write and explain on the tablets, for a vision of this appointed time will yet be revealed.

We must make note of Yoshiyahu’s grandfather, Menashe. Despite being the son of the righteous Chizkiyahu, Menashe engages in wickedness in the extreme. He is regarded as the worst of the monarchs described in Sefer Melachim. No other king, even among the evil rulers of the Northern Kingdom (such as Ba’asha), is described in such negative terms. He is described (Melachim II 21:2-11) as having done evil in the eyes of Hashem, having imitated the evil practices of the other nations, having exceeded the evil of the Emori, and having sinned with the brazen intention of angering Hashem.