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 , 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, 2Ki 25:7, not chains of gold, with which Mark Antony bound a king of Armenia, for the sake of honour :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 , it was he that took Manasseh; and by an Arabic writer , he is said to be carried to Nineveh.
Seder Olam Rabba, c. 24. p. 67. Vell. Patercul. Hist. Roman. l. 2. In voce manasshv. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. Dyn. 3. p. 67.