AS A MAN WIPETH A DISH

Manasseh undid what his father, Hezekiah, had done, vv. 1-9. The prophets faithfully declared God’s verdict: he has outdone what the heathen did, v. 11, Gen. 15. 16; he has emulated Ahab, the comparison with the Amorites being found elsewhere only of Ahab, whose evil surpassed all his predecessors, 1 Kgs. 21. 26; 16. 30; he has done what Jeroboam did, the one making Israel to sin, the other Judah, v. 11; 1 Kgs. 14. 16. Therefore, the very judgement that befell them will befall Judah, v. 13; emphasized by the term, ‘the Lord God of Israel’, v. 12. It will have the same effect, as did the judgement on the house of Eli, ears will tingle, v. 12; 1 Sam. 3. 11. Divine retribution is a fundamental lesson of scripture; and how sad when we do not learn from the past and the failures of others.

Judgement is imminent and inevitable. The Lord’s words through His servant declare that He will act. He is a builder tak­ing careful measurements; but He does this not for sound construction but to destroy, v. 13. What will happen is a deliber­ate, planned procedure. Jerusalem is to be levelled to the ground. The Babylonians are, in a very concrete metaphor, ‘the rod of [God’s] anger’, Isa. 10. 5-6.

The prophet also depicts the Lord, by means of a simile, as someone doing a manual chore, wiping a dish, ‘I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down’, v. 13. The simile lends colour to the message. It appeals to our visual and tactile senses. It relates to the domestic sphere and is an everyday occurrence; we cannot miss the point. The people will be swept away as leftovers from a dish or bowl. The Hebrew word translated ‘wipe’ has a number of meanings: ‘destroy’ referring to the flood, Gen. 6. 4; ‘blot out’, Exod. 32. 33, referring to God’s judgement on sinners. ‘Turning it upside down’ suggests a careful, thorough process; every speck and drop is disposed of; the dish will be clean all over. God’s judge­ment by means of the Babylonians will be total; the people will be subjugated, many exiled, the walls and houses demolished, 1 Kgs. 25. 9-10. The repetition ‘wipes’, ‘wipeth’, ‘wiping’ empha­sizes the thoroughness of the action.