Manasseh (;

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: ''Mənaššé'', "Forgetter"; ''Menasî'' 'me-na-si-i'' ''Manasses''; ) was the fourteenth king of the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

. He was the oldest of the sons of

Hezekiah Hezekiah (; ), or Ezekias (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Kingdom of Judah, Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "G ...

and

Hephzibah Hephzibah or Hepzibah ( or ; ) is a minor figure in the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. She was the wife of Hezekiah, king of Judah (reigned 715 and 686 BCE), and the mother of Manasseh of Judah (reigned 687–643 BCE). Biblical ...

(). He became king at the age of 12 and reigned for 55 years (; ).

Biblical account

The

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Jeremiah 15:4, where the

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

predicts "four forms of destruction" for the people of Judah because of the evil done by Manasseh in Judah. Manasseh was the first king of Judah who was not contemporary with the

northern kingdom of Israel The Kingdom of Israel ( ), also called the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Samaria, was an Israelite kingdom that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Its beginnings date back to the first half of the 10th century BCE. It c ...

, which the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

ns had destroyed 720 BC, deporting much of its population. He re-instituted

polytheistic Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one Deity, god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, ...

worship and reversed the religious changes made by his father Hezekiah – hence his condemnation in several biblical verses. He married Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz of Jotbah, and they had a son

Amon Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Mononym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah * Amon of Toul ( 375– 423 AD), second recorded Bishop of ...

, who succeeded him as king of Judah upon his death. Hezekiah, Manasseh and Amon appear in the

genealogy of Jesus The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham and works forwards, while Luke works back in time from Jesus to Adam. The lists of na ...

Matthew's gospel The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah ( Christ), Jesus, his resurrection, and his mission to the ...

. After a reign of 55 years, the longest in the history of Judah, he died 643 BC and was buried in the garden of Uzza, the "garden of his own house" (; ), and not in the

City of David The City of David (Hebrew: עיר דוד, ''Ir David'') is the historic heart of Jerusalem and widely regarded as the original location of the ancient city established by King David over 3,000 years ago. Situated just south of the Temple Mount, the ...

, among his ancestors. The biblical narratives report Manasseh's accession to the throne at the time of his father's death. However, Edwin Thiele concludes that he had commenced his reign as co-regent with his father Hezekiah in 697/696 BC, with the co-regency lasting 12 years and his sole reign beginning in 687/686 BC and continuing until his death in 643/642 BC.

Relations with Assyria

When Manasseh's reign began,

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

was king of

, who reigned until 681 BC. Manasseh is mentioned in Assyrian records as a contemporary and loyal vassal of Sennacherib's son and successor,

Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (, also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC. The third king of the S ...

. Assyrian records list Manasseh among twenty-two kings required to provide materials for Esarhaddon's building projects. Esarhaddon died in 669 BC and was succeeded by his son,

Ashurbanipal Ashurbanipal (, meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir")—or Osnappar ()—was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BC to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Ashurbanipal inherited the th ...

, who also names Manasseh as one of a number of vassals who assisted his campaign against Egypt. The Assyrian records are consistent with archaeological evidence of demographic trends and settlement patterns suggesting a period of stability in Judah during Manasseh's reign. Despite the criticisms of his religious policies in the biblical texts, archaeologists such as

Israel Finkelstein Israel Finkelstein (; born March 29, 1949) is an Israelis, Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the a ...

and

Neil Asher Silberman Neil Asher Silberman (born June 19, 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American archaeologist and historian with a special interest in biblical archaeology. He is the author of several books, including ''The Hidden Scrolls'', ''The Message and ...

credit Manasseh with reviving Judah's rural economy, arguing that a possible Assyrian grant of

most favoured nation In international economic relations and international politics, most favoured nation (MFN) is a status or level of treatment accorded by one state to another in international trade. The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatme ...

status stimulated the creation of an export market. They argue that changes to the economic structure of the countryside would have required the cooperation of the "countryside aristocracy", with restoration of worship at the high places a ''

quid pro quo ''Quid pro quo'' (Latin: "something for something") is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; "a favor for a favor". Phrases with similar meanings include: " ...

'' for this. Apparent devastation of the fertile

Shephelah The Shephelah () or Shfela (), or the Judaean Foothills (), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel stretching over between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The different use of the term "Jud ...

, coupled with growth of the population of the highlands and the southeast of the kingdom (especially in the

Beersheba valley Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most po ...

) during Manasseh's reign, point to this possibility. Finkelstein has also suggested that Manasseh's extensive trade activity as a vassal of Assyria may have provided the basis for some of the biblical stories about King Solomon's great acquisition of wealth through foreign trade relationships.

Olive oil trade

Olive oil production and export played a big role in the economy of the time. There is evidence in the

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

area of entrepôt trade, and an apparently flourishing olive oil industry at

Ekron Ekron (Philistine: 𐤏𐤒𐤓𐤍 ''*ʿAqārān'', , ), in the Hellenistic period known as Accaron () was at first a Canaanite, and later more famously a Philistine city, one of the five cities of the Philistine Pentapolis, located in pr ...

. The construction or reconstruction of forts at sites such as Arad and

Horvat Uza Horvat Uza () is an archaeological site located in the northeast of the Negev desert in Israel. The site is located in the east of the Arad Valley and overlooks Nahal Qinah (Qinah Valley). In ancient times, forts were established there to con ...

, explored by

Nadav Na'aman Nadav Na'aman (Hebrew language, Hebrew: נדב נעמן; born in 1939 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli archaeologist and historian. He specializes in the study of the Near East in the second and first millenniums Current Era , BCE. His research combin ...

and others, is also argued by Finkelstein and Silberman to be evidence in support of this thesis, as they would have been needed to protect the trade routes. However, Finkelstein and Silberman argue that the trade led to great disparities between rich and poor, which in turn gave rise to civil unrest. As a result, they speculate, the

Deuteronomist The Deuteronomist, abbreviated as either Dtr or simply D, may refer either to the source document underlying the core chapters (12–26) of the Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deutero ...

author or editor of

2 Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Israel also including ...

later reworked the traditions about Manasseh to portray his outward-looking involvement in trade as, effectively,

apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...

Religious policies

There are three aspects of Manasseh's religious policy which the writer of ''

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

'' 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

, and re-established local shrines, possibly for economic reasons. He restored polytheistic worship of

Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...

and

Asherah Asherah (; ; ; ; Qatabanian language, Qatabanian: ') was a goddess in ancient Semitic religions. She also appears in Hittites, Hittite writings as ''Ašerdu(š)'' or ''Ašertu(š)'' (), and as Athirat in Ugarit. Some scholars hold that Ashera ...

() in the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, and sponsored the Assyrian

astral cult The worship of heavenly bodies is the veneration of stars (individually or together as the night sky), the planets, or other astronomical objects as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these ...

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 Moloch, Molech, or Molek is a word which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the Book of Leviticus. The Greek Septuagint translates many of these instances as "their king", but maintains the word or name ''Moloch'' in others, ...

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 The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible first published between 1880 and 1919

identifies the prophets as probably

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...

and

Habakkuk Habakkuk or Habacuc is the main figure described in the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is traditionally regarded as a prophet active around 612 BCE. Almost all information about Habakkuk is dr ...

and possibly

Nahum Nahum ( or ; ''Naḥūm'') was a minor prophet whose prophecy is recorded in the ''Tanakh'', also called the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. His book comes in chronological order between Micah and Habakkuk in the Bible. He wrote about the ...

and

Zephaniah Zephaniah (, ; – ''Sōfənīəs'') is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible; the most prominent being the prophet who prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah (640–609 BCE) and is attributed a book bearing his name among th ...

. Manasseh's response was to persecute those who had bitterly condemned the popular syncretism. The prophets were put to the sword (Jeremiah 2:30). Exegetical tradition relates that Isaiah, Manasseh's own grandfather, suffered a particularly painful execution, sawn in two under the king's orders. "Innocent blood" reddened the streets of Jerusalem. For many decades those who sympathized with prophetic ideas were in constant peril. Conversely, rather than as lapses from a previous strict Mosaic monotheism, accounting for contemporary domestic and foreign counterparts,

Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Coll ...

thinks as nearer to historical truth of Manasseh as well as

as pious conservatives, defending the faith of their ancestors.

Assyrian detention and repentance

According to , Manasseh was on one occasion brought in chains to the

Assyrian king The king of Assyria (Akkadian language, Akkadian: , later ) was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, which was founded in the late 21st century BC and fell in the late 7th century BC. For much of its early history, Assyria was ...

, possibly

, presumably for suspected disloyalty. The verse goes on to indicate that he was later treated well and restored to his throne. In

the Chronicler The Chronicler is the author, or group of authors, to whom some biblical scholars have attributed the composition of: the Books of Chronicles, the Book of Ezra, and the Book of Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;

's account, the severity of Manasseh's imprisonment brought him to repentance. Manasseh was restored to the throne, () and abandoned

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of an idol as though it were a deity. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the Abrahamic ...

, removing the foreign idols () and enjoining the people to worship the Lord of Israel

Yahweh Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom ...

. However, neither ''Kings'' nor Assyrian records mention this incident.

Chronological notes

Thiele dates Manasseh's reign back from the dates of the reign of his grandson,

Josiah Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s ...

. Josiah died at the hands of Pharaoh

Necho II Necho II (sometimes Nekau, Neku, Nechoh, or Nikuu; Greek: Νεκώς Β'; ) of Egypt was a king of the 26th Dynasty (610–595 BC), which ruled from Sais. Necho undertook a number of construction projects across his kingdom. In his reign, accor ...

in the summer of 609 BC. By Judean reckoning, which began regnal years in the fall month of

Tishri Tishrei () or Tishri (; ''tīšrē'' or ''tīšrī''; from Akkadian language, Akkadian ''tašrītu'' "beginning", from ''šurrû'' "to begin") is the first month of the civil year (which starts on 1 Tishrei) and the seventh month of the eccles ...

, this would be in the year 610/609 BC. Josiah reigned for 31 years (, ) and began to reign after the short two-year reign of

. Manasseh's last year, 33 years earlier, would be 643/642 BC. The length of Manasseh's reign is given as 55 years in . Assuming non-accession reckoning, as he usually did for coregencies, Thiele determined 54 "actual" years back to 697/696 BC, as the year when the Hezekiah/Manasseh coregency began. Non-accession reckoning means that the first partial year of a king in office was counted twice, once for him and once for his predecessor, so that one year must be subtracted when measuring spans of time. An analysis of the data for

Jeroboam II Jeroboam II (, ''Yāroḇʿām''; ; ), also referred to as Jeroboam son of Jehoash, was the successor of Jehoash (alternatively spelled Joash) and the thirteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years in ...

of Israel and

Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat (; alternatively spelled Jehosaphat, Josaphat, or Yehoshafat; ; ; ), according to the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah, in succession to his father. His children included Jehoram, who ...

of Judah, both of whom had coregencies, shows that their years were measured in this way. Regarding the Hezekiah/Manasseh coregency, Thiele observes Manasseh began his reign when he was 12 years old (), and then comments, "A Hebrew lad when he reached the age of twelve was a 'son of the law' and had become ''gadol''. He had then passed from the days of childhood to youth and was considered old enough to concern himself with the serious work of life ... it is only to be expected that the king, facing the prospect of the termination of his reign within fifteen years [], would at the earliest moment give the heir-presumptive every advantage of training in leadership."

In other literature

In Isaiah in Rabbinic Literature, rabbinic literature and Christian pseudepigrapha, Manasseh is accused of executing the prophet

, who was identified as the maternal grandfather of Manasseh. The

Prayer of Manasseh The Prayer of Manasseh is a short, penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah. The majority of scholars believe that the Prayer of Manasseh was written in Greek (while a minority argues for a Semitic original) in the second or firs ...

, a penitential prayer attributed to Manasseh, appears in some Christian Bibles, but is considered

apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

. Manasseh is also made reference to in chapter 21 of 1 Meqabyan, a book considered

canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, ''canonical exampl ...

in the

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

, where he is used as an example of ungodly king. In the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

, Manasseh is referenced as the ancestor of the prophet Lehi.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Menasseh in the Talmud"Manasseh"
in ''

The Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

'' * {{Authority control 640s BC deaths 7th-century BCE kings of Judah Year of birth unknown Ancient child monarchs Biblical murderers