Manasseh’s Prayer for Forgiveness

2nd or 1st Century BCE

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The Prayer of Manasseh survives in Syriac and Greek and dates to sometime between the second century BCE and the early first century CE, before the year 70. Whether the original language was Greek or Hebrew/Aramaic remains uncertain. The text of the prayer is not accompanied by a contextualizing narrative, but it shares some vocabulary with 2 Chronicles 33, which describes the punishment of the Judean king Manasseh for his idolatry: “In his distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to Him, and He granted his prayer, heard his plea, and returned him to Jerusalem, to his kingdom” (2 Chronicles 33:12–13, NJPS). However, it does not supply the prayer. (The Chronicles narrative itself is a pietistic reworking of 2 Kings 20, where Manasseh shows no contrition.) The language of the prayer is heavily penitential, emphasizing the petitioner’s guilt, unworthiness, and repentance and God’s mercy to repentant sinners.

¹O Lord Almighty,

God of our ancestors,

of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob

and of their righteous offspring;

²you who made heaven and earth

with all their order;

³who shackled the sea by your word of command,

who confined the deep

and sealed it with your terrible and glorious name;

⁴at whom all things shudder,

and tremble before your power,

⁵for your glorious splendor cannot be borne,

and the wrath of your threat to sinners is unendurable;

⁶yet immeasurable and unsearchable

is your promised mercy,

⁷for you are the Lord Most High,

of great compassion, long-suffering, and very merciful,

and you relent at human suffering.

O Lord, according to your great goodness

you have promised repentance and forgiveness

to those who have sinned against you,

and in the multitude of your mercies

you have appointed repentance for sinners,

so that they may be saved.

⁸Therefore you, O Lord, God of the righteous,

have not appointed repentance for the righteous,

for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who did not sin against you,

but you have appointed repentance for me, who am a sinner.

⁹For the sins I have committed are more in number than the sand of the sea;

my transgressions are multiplied, O Lord, they are multiplied!

I am not worthy to look up and see the height of heaven

because of the multitude of my iniquities.

¹⁰I am weighted down with many an iron fetter,

so that I am rejected because of my sins,

and I have no relief;

for I have provoked your wrath

and have done what is evil in your sight,

setting up abominations and multiplying offenses.

¹¹And now I bend the knee of my heart,

imploring you for your kindness.

¹²I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned,

and I acknowledge my transgressions.

¹³I earnestly implore you,

forgive me, O Lord, forgive me!

Do not destroy me with my transgressions!

Do not be angry with me forever or store up evil for me;

do not condemn me to the depths of the earth.

For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent,

¹⁴and in me you will manifest your goodness;

for, unworthy as I am, you will save me according to your great mercy,

¹⁵and I will praise you continually all the days of my life.

For all the host of heaven sings your praise,

and yours is the glory forever. Amen.

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

Credits

New Revised Standard Version Bible copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

Manasseh’s Prayer for Forgiveness

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