MANASSEH, ma-nas'e: Thirteenth king of Judah, eon and successor of Heztkiah. His dates, according to the old chronology, are 696-641 a.c., according to Kamphausen, 685-641, according to R. Kittel (Geschichte Ilea Volkes Israel, ii. 516 sqq., Gotha, 1909), 697 or 686-641. In order to understand the reign of Manasseh, it is necessary to bear in mind the events which took place toward the end of Hezekiah's reign-the inroad of &nnacherib into Judah and the rescue which followed, a result of which was a revival of faith in Yahweh. With the enthronement of Manasseh came a revulsion and a reversal of the religious tendencies, restoration of the sanctuaries closed by Hezekiah and of the heathenish or semi-heathenish rites formerly practised, particularly that of child-sacrifice. This was accompanied by a persecution of the religion of the prophets who had led in Hezekiah's reform. Manaseeh was swayed more by the sentiments of the masses of the people than by the little circle of earnest followers of the Yahweh cult. Undoubtedly the chief occasion of this change was the political situation. Assyria had reached the height of its power, and the vigorous Esarhaddon sat on the throne and conducted victorious campaigns in the Syrian region and against the Phenicians, the Arabs, and the Egyptians. He was followed by his equally able son Aashurbanlpal, Who P,StBblished the Assyrian power in those districts on a still firmer basis. Manasseh, therefore, abandoned the pro-Egyptian policy of his father and threw himself, politically and religiously, into the arms of Assyria, in spite of the predictions of the coming fall of that empire. The apparent success of the gods of Assyria influenced the religious situation, and the anti-Yahwiatic acts of Manasseh were probably met by the resistance of the faithful, which resulted in the persecution of the latter. The Chronicler (II Chron. xsxiii. 1-20) reports that Manasseh was taken prisoner and carried bound to Babylon and afterward restored to his kingdom. This statement hag 522n muth questioned, since ii did not seem probable that as an Assyrian prisoner Manasseh would be carried to Babylon [McCurdy, His", Prophecy and the Monuments, vol. ii., changes " Babylon " to " Nineveh 'I; but this is answered by the fact that in his later years Aashur banipal often dwelt at Babylon. The Chronicler also mentions that Manasseh added to the defenses of Jerusalem.

(R. Kittel.)

Bibliography: The sources are II Kings xxi. 1-18 (of which verses b and 7-lb are by a later hand), and II Chron. xxxiii. 1-20. Consult the pertinent sections in the literature under Ahab; Israel, especially R. Kittel, ut sup.; and Kittel's commentary on Kings and Chronicles, Göttingen 1900; the articles in the Bible Dictionaries, and S. R. Driver, in D. G. Hogarth, Authority and Archeology, pp. 114-118, London, 1899.