Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host
of the king of Assyria
Who was Esarhaddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib; this, according to the Jewish chronology F6, was in the twenty second year of Manasseh's reign:
which took Manasseh among the thorns;
in a thicket of briers and thorns, where, upon his defeat, he had hid himself; a fit emblem of the afflictions and troubles his sins brought him into:
and bound him with fetters;
hands and feet; with chains of brass, as the Targum, such as Zedekiah was bound with, ( 2 Kings 25:7 ) , not chains of gold, with which Mark Antony bound a king of Armenia, for the sake of honour F7:
and carried him to Babylon;
for now the king of Assyria was become master of that city, and added it to his monarchy, and made it the seat of his residence; at least some times that and sometimes Nineveh, Merodachbaladan being dead, or conquered; though, according to Suidas {h}, it was he that took Manasseh; and by an Arabic writer F9, he is said to be carried to Nineveh.