Wednesday Bible Study: M is for Manasseh

So I came to do Manasseh- the king of Judah after his father Hezekiah- thinking I was going to trace down the connection between his own repentance and the faithfulness of his grandson Josiah.   But what I did find- and a lot of it from the Legends of the Jews- tells a tale much more to God's liking.  For you whom I've already totally confused, let's do a quick synopsis.


Hezekiah was the first of the two great reformers in Judah.  According to many experts, there was a tradition of a son being co-ruler with their father for a time before their succession.  Thus, Hezekiah spent some time- perhaps from the ages 12-25- as his father Ahaz's co-ruler.  After what they believe was around 10 years of co-ruling with son Manasseh (starting when he was 12), Hezekiah died and Manasseh took over on his own.   And he couldn't have been more different.

He began not only to undo every reform Hezekiah enacted, but began a reign of terror in Judah against those who DID believe in the God of their fathers:

2Ki 21:16  Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. 

Eventually God had enough of him, and Assyria lowered the boom:

2Ch 33:11  Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. 

That mention of 'hooks' were like that which you would use to catch a fish- a pretty grisly ending- except it wasn't an ending.  Now here, the timelines match up:  Much evidence shows that during what would have been Manasseh's reign, Judah was a tributary to the Assyrian Empire of Esarhaddon.  Unlike Hezekiah in the previous king Sennacherib's archives, there is no mention found (yet) of Manasseh- but Esarhaddon was the only Assyrian king in the era who held court in Babylon.

Now, after a time in the Babylon brig, Manasseh REPENTED- and came back to Judah.  That is what we know from the Bible- except for how Manasseh's son Amon was determined to be even worse than dear old dad was at his worst.  And he succeeded so well, that 2 years into his reign he was killed by his own servants, putting the 8 year old Josiah- the second great reformer- on the throne.  So my thought HAD been that Grandpa Manasseh had been upstaged by 'co-ruler' Amon, and so he spent his time teaching young Josiah, making him into the faithful king he became.

By the numbers, the Legends of the Jews say that Manasseh was in his 22nd year of a 55-year reign when shanghaied to Babylon.  That would have made him 34.  55 years ruling would have put him at 67 when he died, and 45 when Amon was born.  Amon was killed at 24, which means he fathered Josiah at the age of 16, and Manasseh was 61.  So yeah, it is possible that Josiah learned of God from a now-neutered Manasseh.  Checking this out, as I mentioned, led me to the Sefaria library and the Legends of the Jews article which fleshed a lot of this out.  What I am about to tell you is based a lot on that, with the usual problems that come from such a story- but there is a conclusion that makes a ton of sense.

Paraphrasing in my own inimitable style:

Hezekiah had long resisted siring an heir, because of a prophesy that his sons would undo all his good works.  The prophet Isaiah had offered him his own daughter Hephzibah, but still he him-hawed; this was responsible, they say, for the disease that almost killed him in 2 Kings 20.  So finally he married the girl, and had two boys, Manasseh and Rabshakeh.  They quickly became as evil as the prophecy claimed;  and it led to this grim story:

 Once, when Hezekiah was carrying his two little ones on his shoulders to the Bet ha-Midrash, he overheard their conversation. The one said: "Our father's bald head might do for frying fish." The other rejoined: "It would do well for offering sacrifices to idols." Enraged by these words, Hezekiah let his sons slip from his shoulders. Rabshakeh was killed by the fall, but Manasseh escaped unhurt.

So Manasseh becomes the heir; and we need no legends to tell us how evil he was.  Among the things the Bible accuses him of are:

- rebuilt the pagan altars to Baal and "all the host of heaven"

-put more altars in the court of the Temple

- put a statue of Astarte in the Temple

- burned his own sons as an offering in the Valley of Himmon (thus explaining why he didn't have a much older heir than Amon)

But that wasn't all of it, according to the Legends.  He was responsible for the deaths of the prophets of the time, at least Isaiah and most probably Micah, Joel, and Habakkuk.  A trail of blood led right to his door- and eventually God sent Esarhaddon to follow it and take him.  Who it was that ruled in his place is unknown, but Amon hadn't been born yet.   The length of the Babylonian imprisonment isn't known either, but it was fearsome enough that even this hardened heart broke, and turned to God.  His prayer may have been recaptured in a Greek-language apocrypha called the Prayer of Manasseh, supposedly written down some 5 centuries later.  Whether it was his or a dramatization, it certainly carried his feelings:

 O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed; 

  who hast made heaven and earth, with all the ornament thereof; 

 who hast bound the sea by the word of thy commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and glorious name; 

  whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; 

  for the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable: 

but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; 

  for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee: and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved. 

  Thou therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner: 

  for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied: my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities. 

 I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any release: for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee: I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments: I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences. 

 Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace. 

  I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: 

  wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities. Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me to the lower parts of the earth. For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent; 

  and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy. 

 Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

(I took out the verse headers to make it read easier, this once.)

And now I come to the crux of our story, and it is again from the Legends.  It tells the story of how Manasseh's prayer was heard in heaven, and how it was a man so despicably evil got forgiveness from the Throne:

The angels stopped up the windows of heaven, that the prayer of Manasseh might not ascend to God, and they said: "Lord of the world! Art Thou willing to give gracious hearing to one who has paid worship to idols, and set up an idol in the Temple?" "If I did not accept the penance of this man," replied God, "I should be closing the door in the face of all repentant sinners." God made a small opening under the Throne of His Glory, and received the prayer of Manasseh through it. Suddenly a wind arose, and carried Manasseh back to Jerusalem. His return to God not only helped him in his distress, but also brought him pardon for all his sins, so that not even his share in the future world was withdrawn from him.

So did Manasseh miraculously come back to Judah?  Was his repentance enough to earn him heaven?  We have no way of knowing- other than the proof of his fruits:

2Ch 33:13  He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God. 

2Ch 33:14  Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. 

2Ch 33:15  And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. 

2Ch 33:16  He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. 

2Ch 33:17  Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God. 

But the one thing we do know is true is what God said in the story.  "If I did not accept the penance of this man," replied God, "I should be closing the door in the face of all repentant sinners."    If Jesus died for our sins, He died for ALL sins of ALL men- with the exception of those who refuse to the end to accept him.

Mat 12:31  Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 

Mat 12:32  And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. 

And that, in fact, is what sunk his son Amon:

2Ch 33:22  And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. 

2Ch 33:23  And he did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. 

I had always compressed the timeline too much in my mind.  I thought Amon learned from his father's evil example before repentance, while Josiah learned the better example of the humbled and restored Manasseh.  But no, Manasseh had already reformed by Amon's birth; and his sins weren't Manasseh's but his own.