Manasseh apparently did his best to undo the evil he had wrought in Jerusalem. So far as the idols and other symbols of idolatry were concerned, it was comparatively easy to take them away. But notwithstanding all his endeavors, the people still sacrificed in high places; and his son Amen perpetuated the memory of his father’s sins, making no effort to repeat his repentance and tears. Though Manasseh commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the people continued to worship amid the impure and degrading associations to which he had accustomed them.

It is easier to scatter thistle-down than gather it up. There are great thistle tracts in Australia, which would never ‘have arisen but for the careless act of a Scotch settler, who imported from his native land one specimen