Bible
Read this if you…
- like a 15-verse penitential prayer attributed to Judah's wickedest king
- care about deuterocanonical texts that argue mercy reaches even the worst offender
- want one of the most quoted Apocryphal prayers in the Christian liturgical tradition
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Gallery
Depicted in Art
Manasseh sits in profile, slumped in contemplative sorrow over his idolatry, while Meshullemeth holds the infant Amon at his back.
Michelangelo, 1512
Manasseh as captive in Babylon, dejected and isolated in his exile after the Assyrian conquest.
Maerten de Vos
Manasseh in fetters in a Babylonian prison, kneeling and praying upward toward a shaft of light.
Providence Lithograph Company, 1904
Editions
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King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Notable Quotes
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities.
AcclaimPraised by 2 notable voices
- Martin Luther, German reformer; founder of Protestantism, 1483–1546: Luther kept it in his German Bible and urged the Duke of Braunschweig to repent in such words as those of the Prayer of Manasses.
- Thomas Aquinas, medieval theologian and philosopher, c. 1225–1274: Aquinas cited it in the Summa Theologiae to argue that penance is necessary for all who are in sin.
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