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Published on Oct 14, 2018


The Prayer of Manasseh is a short work of 15 verses recording a penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah. The majority of scholars believe that the Prayer of Manasseh was written, in Greek, in the first or second century BC. Another work by the same title, written in Hebrew and containing distinctly different content, was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Manasseh (/məˈnæsə/)[a was a king of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the only son of Hezekiah and his wife Hephzibah. He became king at the age of 12 and reigned for 55 years (2 Kings 21:1; 2 Chronicles 33:1). Edwin Thiele has concluded that he commenced his reign as co-regent with his father Hezekiah in 697/696 BC, with his sole reign beginning in 687/686 BC and continuing until his death in 643/642 BC. William F. Albright has dated his reign from 687–642 BC.[citation needed
The biblical account of Manasseh is found in 2 Kings 21:1–18 and 2 Chronicles 32:33–33:20. He is also mentioned in Jeremiah 15:4.
There are three aspects of Manasseh's religious policy which the writer of Kings considered deplorable: the religious reaction which followed hard upon his accession; its extension by the free adoption of foreign cults; and the bitter persecution of the prophetic party.
According to Kings, Manasseh reversed the centralizing reforms of his father Hezekiah, and re-established local shrines, possibly for economic reasons. He restored polytheistic worship of Baal and Asherah (2 Kings 21) in the Temple, and sponsored the Assyrian astral cult throughout Judah. So zealous was he in his worship of the foreign gods, he is said to have participated in the sacrificial cult of Moloch which consisted of sacrificing young children or passing them through fire (2 Kings 21:6). His reign may be described as reactionary in relation to his father's, and Kings suggests that he may have executed supporters of his father's reforms. During Manasseh's half-century the popular worship was a medley of native and foreign cults, the influence of which was slow to disappear.
2 Kings 21:10 suggests that several prophets combined their condemnation of Manasseh. The Pulpit Commentary identifies the prophets as probably Isaiah and Habakkuk and possibly Nahum and Zephaniah. Manasseh's response was to persecute those who had bitterly condemned the popular syncretism. The prophets were put to the sword (Jeremiah 2:30). "Innocent blood" reddened the streets of Jerusalem. For many decades those who sympathized with prophetic ideas were in constant peril.

According to 2 Chronicles 33:11–13, Manasseh was on one occasion brought in chains to the Assyrian king, (possibly Esarhaddon), presumably for suspected disloyalty. The verse goes on to indicate that he was later treated well and restored to his throne. However, neither Kings nor Assyrian records mention this incident. The severity of Manasseh's imprisonment brought him to repentance. According to one of the two Biblical accounts (2 Kings 21 does not have the account of Manasseh's captivity or repentance), Manasseh was restored to the throne, (2 Chronicles 33:11–13) and abandoned idolatry, removing foreign idols (2 Chronicles 33:15) and enjoining the people to worship the Lord of Israel Yahweh.

Manasseh was the first king of Judah who was not contemporary with the northern kingdom of Israel, which had been destroyed by the Assyrians in c. 720 BC, with much of its population deported. He re-instituted polytheistic worship and reversed the religious changes made by his father Hezekiah, for which he is condemned by several Biblical texts.
After a reign of 55 years (for 10 of which he was co-regent with his father), the longest in the history of Judah, he died in c. 643 BC and was buried in the garden of Uzza, the "garden of his own house" (2 Kings 21:17–18; 2 Chronicles 33:20), and not in the City of David, among his ancestors.

Manasseh is recorded in the Bible as one of the most idolatrous kings of Judah (2 Kings 21:1–18; 2 Chronicles 33:1–9). The second Book of Chronicles, but not the second Book of Kings, records that Manasseh was taken captive by the Assyrians (2 Chronicles 33:11–13). While a prisoner, Manasseh prayed for mercy, and upon being freed and restored to the throne turned from his idolatrous ways (2 Chronicles 33:15–17). A reference to the prayer, but not the prayer itself, is made in 2 Chronicles 33:19, which says that the prayer is written in "the annals of the kings of Israel".