Amon
King Amon (Hebrew, faithful, true, trustworthy) (665-r. 643-641 BC according to Ussher, or 664-r. 642-640 BC according to Thiele) was the fourteenth king of the Southern Kingdom of Israel in direct line of descent. He was almost as wicked as his father, but he did not last nearly as long.
Early life
Amon was born late in his father Manasseh's reign. His mother's name was son of::Meshullemeth.
When he was sixteen years of age, he married a woman named husband of::Jedidah and by her had a most famous son named father of::succeeded by::Josiah.
Brief and Wicked Reign
Amon succeeded to the throne on the death of his father. All the pagan images that his father had put away, Amon put back and worshiped. Several prophets, among them Zephaniah, warned him against this, but he paid no heed to them and did ever greater evils.
Death and Succession
Amon died in a palace coup, the second of two kings of the Southern Kingdom so to perish (the first was Joash). He was buried in a private grave, next to his father.
The plotters did not survive him long, for the people rounded them up and, presumably after trying and convicting them on the testimony of two witnesses, executed them. They then acclaimed the eight-year-old Josiah to take the kingdom over.
Speculation
The commentaries on Amon's reign are relatively few. However, some of them[1] engage in speculation that Amon, and his father Manasseh before him, were willing vassals of an Assyrian king (presumably Esarhaddon), and that therein lay the motive for their respective idol worship, Baalism, and persecution of the prophets. The Bible nowhere lends this notion any specific credence. Furthermore, Jesus Christ would later say that prophets are always subject to persecution by their own, because of the uncomfortable truths that they tell.
References
- II_Kings 21:19-26
- II_Chronicles 33:21-25
- James Ussher, The Annals of the World, pghh. 708, 714, 718-19
- Amon King of Judah at ChristCenteredMall.com
- Amon at the WebBible Encyclopedia
- Amon at Net.Bible.org
- Amon at InfoPlease.com
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