Manasseh מנשה מלך יהודה
king of Judah for fifty-five years; returned from captivity a penitent
Manasseh became king at twelve and reigned fifty-five years—longer than any other king of Judah (2 Kings 21:1). The beginning was a complete reversal of his father's work: he rebuilt the altars Hezekiah had torn down, set a carved image in the Temple itself, practised divination, and "shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from end to end" (2 Kings 21:16). Tradition places in his days the execution of the prophet Isaiah, who by the Talmud's reckoning was his maternal grandfather (Yevamot 49b).
Chronicles tells what Kings does not: the captains of the king of Assyria took Manasseh to Babylon "in fetters and chains", and there, in his distress, he prayed—and was restored to Jerusalem, and put away the foreign gods (2 Chronicles 33:11–13). Sanhedrin 103a builds on this one of the strongest statements about repentance ever made: the gates of prayer were shut to Manasseh, and the Holy One dug a passage beneath the throne of glory to receive it. The sages' dispute over whether Manasseh has a share in the world to come is recorded there and is not settled either way.
His reign by the traditional count is AM 3228–3283; by the academic count 697–643 BCE, of which the first ten years are reckoned a coregency with his father.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim II (2 Kings) 21:1–18 — his accession at twelve, fifty-five years of reign, and the return of the idols
- 2 Chronicles 33:11–13 — the deportation to Babylon in chains, the prayer, and the return
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sanhedrin 101b–103a — the dispute over Manasseh's share in the world to come, and the passage dug beneath the throne of glory for his prayer
- Yevamot 49b — the execution of Isaiah in his days
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.