Amon

AI summary: Amon matters because the cross references present him as a king who inherits Judah's spiritual damage and does nothing to heal it. He continues the evil patterns associated with Manasseh, is assassinated by his own servants, and leaves the kingdom politically unstable. His brief reign is important not for great events of its own but because it heightens the contrast with Josiah's later response to the law. Taken together, the material presents Amon as a minor but telling ruler whose failure forms part of the moral backdrop to Judah's last major reform.¹

The son of Manasseh, and fourteenth king of Judah. He restored idolatry, and set up the images which his father had cast down. Zephaniah (1:4; 3:4, 11) refers to the moral depravity prevailing in this king’s reign. He was assassinated (2 Kings 21:18-26: 2 Chr. 33:20-25) by his own servants, who conspired against him. ³