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
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.