Manasseh (2)
VIEW:15 DATA:01-04-2020
1. Jdg_18:30. Father of Gershom and grandfather of the Levite Jonathan, priest of the Danite graven image taken from Micah. So the Masoretic text but with the Hebrew letter nun (n) of "Ma-n-asseh" suspended above. The true reading is "Moses." The Talmud (Baba Bathr. f. 109 b.) conjecturing says: "because he did the deeds of Manasseh (2 Kings 21), Hezekiah's idolatrous son, who also made the graven image in the temple, Scripture assigns him (Jonathan) to the family of Manasseh though he was a son of Moses."
So Rabbabar bar Channa says: "the sacred author avoided calling Gershom son of Moses because it would have been ignominious to Moses to have had an ungodly son; he calls him son of Manasseh raising the Nun ( נ ) above the line that it might be either inserted or omitted ... to show that he was son of Manasseh in impiety, of Moses by descent." Jonathan was probably grandson (as "son" often means, or descendant) of Gershom, for the son of Gershom was not a "young man" (Jdg_17:7) but old shortly after the death of Joshua, the earliest date of the last five chapters of Judges, which no doubt refer to earlier events than those after which they are placed. (See JUDGES.)
2. Ezr_10:30.
3. Ezr_10:33.
4. The son born to Hezekiah, subsequently to that severe sickness in which the king's bitterest sorrow was that he was likely to die without leaving an heir. His birth was 12 years before Hezekiah's death, 710 B.C. (2Ki_21:1; 2Ki_20:3; in 2Ki_20:18 Isaiah spoke of Hezekiah's children as yet to be born.) His mother Hephzibah was probably a godly woman (compare Isa_62:4-5), daughter of one of the princes at Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 10:3, sec. 1). (See HEPHZIBAH.) Isaiah made her name ("my delight is in her") a type of Jerusalem, as Hezekiah was type of Messiah (Isa_32:1). The name "Manasseh" embodied Hezekiah's cherished policy to take advantage of Shalmaneser's overthrow of the rival northern kingdom, and gather round him the remnant left and attach them to the one national divinely sanctioned worship at Jerusalem (2Ch_30:6).
His proclamation had the desired effect upon "divers of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun" (2Ch_30:18; 2Ch_31:1); they came to the Passover at Jerusalem, and joined in breaking the idols in their own country. The name Manasseh ("forgetting") given to the heir of the throne was a pledge of amnesty of past discords between Israel and Judah, and a bond of union between his crown and the northern people, a leading tribe of whom bore the name. Manasseh's reign was the longest of the reigns of Judah's kings, 55 years (2Ki_21:1-18; 2Ch_33:1-20). Hezekiah had allied himself with Babylon against Assyria, toward the close of his reign, and had displayed his treasures to show his power to the Babylonian ambassadors (2Ki_20:12-19; Isaiah 39; 2Ch_32:31). Manasseh inherited this legacy of ambition and close union with Babylon which Isaiah condemned. Then the idolatry which had been checked, not stifled (Isa_65:3-4), in Hezekiah's reign broke out again.
The abominations of various lands, especially of Babylon, were brought together at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33), "altars for Baalim, "groves" (asheerot), and altars for the host of heaven, in the two courts of the Lord's house." "He caused too his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom," the old Moloch worship of Ammon; and in imitation of the Babylonians "observed times, enchantments, witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit and wizards." A religion of sensuous intoxication reigned on all sides. He made a graven image of the Asheerah ("grove", the obscene symbol of the phallic worship), for which women dedicated to impurity wove hangings in Jehovah's house! (2Ki_21:7.) Sodomites' (qedeeshim), "consecrated men") houses stood nigh to Jehovah's house, for the vilest purposes in the name of religion (2Ki_23:7), Jehovah's altar was cast down (2Ch_33:16), the ark was displaced (2Ch_35:3), the sabbath, the weekly witness for God, was ignored (Isa_56:2; Isa_58:13).
Then Jehovah spoke by the prophets: "Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever heareth it both his ears shall tingle, and I wilt stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab (i.e. I will destroy it as I did Samaria and Ahab), and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, turning it upside down," so as not to leave a drop in it: complete destruction. Tradition represents Manasseh as having sawed Isaiah in sunder for his faithful protest (Heb_11:37). Josephus (Ant. 10:3, sec. 1) says Manasseh slew all the righteous and the prophets day by day, so that Jerusalem flowed with blood, Isaiah (Isa_57:1-4, etc.) alludes also to the "mockings" of which the godly "had trial" (Heb_11:36). The innocent blood thus shed was what the Lord would not pardon the nation, though He accepted Manasseh on repentance and honored the godly Josiah (2Ki_23:26; 2Ki_24:4; Jer_15:4). Judgment at last overtook Manasseh; he would not hear the word, he must hear the rod. Babylon, the occasion of his sin, was the scene of his punishment.
The captain of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon's (see Ezr_4:2; Ezr_4:10; 2Ki_17:24) host, having first crushed the revolt of the Babylonian Merodach Baladan, next took his ally Manasseh "among the thorns," chochim, (rather "with hooks"; an image From the ring passed through the noses of wild beasts to subdue and lead them; so 2Ki_19:28; Eze_29:4), and carried him to Babylon. In affliction he besought the Lord his God (compare Psa_119:67; Psa_119:71; Psa_119:75). The monuments mention "Minasi" (Manasseh) the king of Judah among Esarhaddon's tributaries. Other Assyrian kings governed Babylon by viceroys, but he, like his grandfather Sargon, took the title of its "king," and built a palace and held his court there. A Babylonian tablet was discovered dated by the year of his reign. The undesigned coincidence with secular monuments, whereby Scripture records he brought Manasseh to Babylon (where we might have expected Nineveh), confirms its truth.
The omission from 2 Kings 21 of Manasseh's repentance is due to its having no lasting result so far as the kingdom was concerned. His abolition of outward idolatry did not convert the people, and at his death Amen restored it. Esarhaddon's Babylonian reign was 680-667 B.C.; 676 is fixed on as the date of Manasseh's captivity, the 22nd year of his reign. Manasseh "humbled himself greatly (1Pe_5:6) before the God of his fathers and prayed unto Him, and He was intreated of him and brought him again to Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He is God." This illustrates the exceeding riches of God's grace to the vilest (1Ti_1:15-16). The benefit of sanctified affliction, the efficacy of self abusing suppliant prayer, both these teach experimental knowledge of God (Psa_9:16). Manasseh on his restoration built a wall outside the city of David, W. of Gihon, even to the entering in of "the fish gate" (Zep_1:10 alludes to this), compassing about Ophel.
He took away the strange gods and idol out of Jehovah's house, and all the altars in the mount of the house of Jehovah and in Jerusalem, and repaired Jehovah's altar, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah. The people still sacrificed in the high places, but to Jehovah. The book of the law was as yet a hidden book (2Ch_34:14). He put captains in Judah's fenced cities to guard against Assyria on one side, Egypt on the other. He was buried in his own house (2Ki_21:18) in the garden of Uzza, as not being counted worthy of burial among the kings of David's house. Isaiah and Habakkuk closed their prophesying in his reign; Jeremiah and Zephaniah were but youths in it. Infidelity resulted from the confused polytheism introduced, and from the cutting off of all the faithful (Zep_1:12).
"His prayer and the words of the seers to him were written in the book of the kings of Israel"; while special accounts of his prayer "and how God was intreated, and all his sins ... before he was humbled ... were written among the sayings of the seers" (the Qeri makes it Hozai a prophet: 2Ch_33:18-19). Amon succeeded Manasseh. "The Prayer of Manasseh" in the Apocrypha was rejected from the canon even by the Council of Trent. His recording his own shame and repentance and God's grace to him (though not preserved to us) evidences the reality and depth of his change of heart (Psa_66:16; Joh_4:29; Mar_5:19).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
1. Son of Joseph:
Following the Biblical account of Manasseh (patriarch, tribe, and territory) we find that he was the eider of Joseph's two sons by Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On (Gen_41:51). The birth of a son marked the climax of Joseph's happiness after the long bitterness of his experience. In the joy of the moment, the dark years past could be forgotten; therefore he called the name of the firstborn Manasseh (?causing to forget?), for, said he, God hath made me to forget all my toil. When Jacob was near his end, Joseph brought his two sons to his father who blessed them. Himself the younger son who had received the blessing of the firstborn, Jacob preferred Ephraim, the second son of Joseph, to Manasseh his elder brother, thus indicating the relative positions of their descendants (Gen 48). Before Joseph died he saw the children of Machir the son of Manasseh (Gen_50:23). Machir was born to Manasseh by his concubine, an Aramitess (1Ch_7:14). Whether he married Maacah before leaving for Egypt is not said. She was the sister of Huppim and Shuppim. Of Manasseh's personal life no details are recorded in Scripture. Acccording to Jewish tradition he became steward of his father's house, and acted as interpreter between Joseph and his brethren.
2. The Tribes in the Wilderness and Portion in Palestine:
At the beginning of the desert march the number of Manasseh's men of war is given at 32,200 (Num_1:34 f). At the 2nd census they had increased to 52,700 (Num_26:34). Their position in the wilderness was with the tribe of Benjamin, by the standard of the tribe of Ephraim, on the West of the tabernacle. According to Targum Pseudojon, the standard was the figure of a boy, with the inscription ?The cloud of Yahweh rested on them until they went forth out of the camp.? At Sinai the prince of the tribe was Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur (Num_2:20). The tribe was represented among the spies by Gaddi, son of Susi (Num_13:11, where the name ?tribe of Joseph? seems to be used as an alternative). At the census in the plains of Moab, Manasseh is named before Ephraim, and appears as much the stronger tribe (Num_26:28 ff). The main military exploits in the conquest of Eastern Palestine were performed by Manassites. Machir, son of Manasseh, conquered the Amorites and Gilead (Num_32:39). Jair, son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argob, containing three score cities; these he called by his own name, ?Havvoth-jair? (Num_32:41; Deu_3:4, Deu_3:14). Nobah captured Kenath and the villages thereof (Num_32:42; Jos_17:1, Jos_17:5). Land for half the tribe was thus provided, their territory stretching from the northern boundary of Gad to an undetermined frontier in the North, marching with Geshur and Maacah on the West, and with the desert on the East. The warriors of this half-tribe passed over with those of Reuben and Gad before the host of Israel, and took their share in the conquest of Western Palestine (Josh 22). They helped to raise the great altar in the Jordan valley, which so nearly led to disastrous consequences (Jos_22:10 ff). Golan, the city of refuge, lay within their territory.
The possession of Ephraim and Manasseh West of the Jordan appears to have been undivided at first (Jos_17:16 ff). The portion which ultimately fell to Manasseh marched with Ephraim on the South, with Asher and Issachar on the North, running out to the sea on the West, and falling into the Jordan valley on the East (Jos_17:7 ff). The long dwindling slopes to westward and the fiat reaches of the plain included much excellent soil. Within the territory of Issachar and Asher, Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo, with their villages, were assigned to Manasseh. Perhaps the men of the West lacked the energy and enterprise of their eastern brethren. They failed, in any case, to expel the Canaanites from these cities, and for long this grim chain of fortresses seemed to mock the strength of Israel (Jos_17:11 ff)
Ten cities West of the Jordan, in the portion of Manasseh, were given to the Levites, and 13 in the eastern portion (Jos_21:5, Jos_21:6).
Manasseh took part in the glorious conflict with the host of Sisera (Jdg_5:14). Two famous judges, Gideon and Jephthah, belonged to this tribe. The men of the half-tribe East of Jordan were noted for skill and valor as warriors (1Ch_5:18, 1Ch_5:23 f). Some men of Manasseh had joined David before the battle of Gilboa (1Ch_12:19).
3. Its Place in Later History:
Others, all mighty men of valor, and captains in the host, fell to him on the way to Ziklag, and helped him against the band of rovers (1Ch_12:20 ff). From the half-tribe West of the Jordan 18,000 men, expressed by name, came to David at Hebron to make him king (1Ch_12:31); while those who came from the East numbered, along with the men of Reuben and Gad, 120,000 (1Ch_12:37). David organized the eastern tribes under 2,700 overseers for every matter pertaining to God and for the affairs of the king (1Ch_26:32). The rulers of Manasseh were, in the West, Joel, son of Pedaiah, and in the East, Iddo, son of Zechariah (1Ch_27:20, 1Ch_27:21). Divers of Manasseh humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem at the invitation of Hezekiah to celebrate the Passover (2Ch_30:11). Although not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary, they ate the Passover. Pardon was successfully sought for them by the king, because they set their hearts to seek God (2Ch_30:18 ff).
Of the eastern half-tribe it is said that they went a-whoring after the gods of the land, and in consequence they were overwhelmed and expatriated by Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria (1Ch_5:25 f). Reference to the idolatries of the western half-tribe are also found in 2Ch_31:1; 2Ch_34:6.
There is a portion for Manasseh in Ezekiel's ideal picture (Eze_48:4), and the tribe appears in the list in Rev (Eze_7:6).
The genealogies in Jos_17:1 ff; Num_26:28-34; 1Ch_2:21-23; 1Ch_7:14-19 have fallen into confusion. As they stand, they are mutually contradictory, and it is impossible to harmonize them.
The theories of certain modern scholars who reject the Biblical account are themselves beset with difficulties: e.g. the name is derived from the Arabic, nasa, ?to injure a tendon of the leg.? Manasseh, the Piel part., would thus be the name of a supernatural being, of whom the infliction of such an injury was characteristic. It is not clear which of the wrestlers at the Jabbok suffered the injury. As Jacob is said to have prevailed with gods and men, the suggestion is that it was his antagonist who was lamed. ?It would appear therefore that in the original story the epithet Manasseh was a fitting title of Jacob himself, which might be borne by his worshippers, as in the case of Gad? (EB, under the word, par. 4).
It is assumed that the mention of Machir in Jdg_5:14 definitely locates the Manassites at that time on the West of the Jordan. The raids by members of the tribe on Eastern Palestine must therefore have taken place long after the days of Moses. The reasoning is precarious. After the mention of Reuben (Jdg_5:15, Jdg_5:16), Gilead (Jdg_5:17) may refer to Gad. It would be strange if this warlike tribe were passed over (Guthe). Machir, then probably the strongest clan, stands for the whole tribe, and may be supposed to indicate particularly the noted fighters of the eastern half.
In dealing with the genealogies, ?the difficult name? Zelophehad must be got rid of. Among the suggestions made is one by Dr. Cheyne, which first supposes the existence of a name Salhad, and then makes Zelophehad a corruption of this.
The genealogies certainly present difficulties, but otherwise the narrative is intelligible and self-consistent without resort to such questionable expedients as those referred to above.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
So Rabbabar bar Channa says: "the sacred author avoided calling Gershom son of Moses because it would have been ignominious to Moses to have had an ungodly son; he calls him son of Manasseh raising the Nun ( נ ) above the line that it might be either inserted or omitted ... to show that he was son of Manasseh in impiety, of Moses by descent." Jonathan was probably grandson (as "son" often means, or descendant) of Gershom, for the son of Gershom was not a "young man" (Jdg_17:7) but old shortly after the death of Joshua, the earliest date of the last five chapters of Judges, which no doubt refer to earlier events than those after which they are placed. (See JUDGES.)
2. Ezr_10:30.
3. Ezr_10:33.
4. The son born to Hezekiah, subsequently to that severe sickness in which the king's bitterest sorrow was that he was likely to die without leaving an heir. His birth was 12 years before Hezekiah's death, 710 B.C. (2Ki_21:1; 2Ki_20:3; in 2Ki_20:18 Isaiah spoke of Hezekiah's children as yet to be born.) His mother Hephzibah was probably a godly woman (compare Isa_62:4-5), daughter of one of the princes at Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 10:3, sec. 1). (See HEPHZIBAH.) Isaiah made her name ("my delight is in her") a type of Jerusalem, as Hezekiah was type of Messiah (Isa_32:1). The name "Manasseh" embodied Hezekiah's cherished policy to take advantage of Shalmaneser's overthrow of the rival northern kingdom, and gather round him the remnant left and attach them to the one national divinely sanctioned worship at Jerusalem (2Ch_30:6).
His proclamation had the desired effect upon "divers of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun" (2Ch_30:18; 2Ch_31:1); they came to the Passover at Jerusalem, and joined in breaking the idols in their own country. The name Manasseh ("forgetting") given to the heir of the throne was a pledge of amnesty of past discords between Israel and Judah, and a bond of union between his crown and the northern people, a leading tribe of whom bore the name. Manasseh's reign was the longest of the reigns of Judah's kings, 55 years (2Ki_21:1-18; 2Ch_33:1-20). Hezekiah had allied himself with Babylon against Assyria, toward the close of his reign, and had displayed his treasures to show his power to the Babylonian ambassadors (2Ki_20:12-19; Isaiah 39; 2Ch_32:31). Manasseh inherited this legacy of ambition and close union with Babylon which Isaiah condemned. Then the idolatry which had been checked, not stifled (Isa_65:3-4), in Hezekiah's reign broke out again.
The abominations of various lands, especially of Babylon, were brought together at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33), "altars for Baalim, "groves" (asheerot), and altars for the host of heaven, in the two courts of the Lord's house." "He caused too his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom," the old Moloch worship of Ammon; and in imitation of the Babylonians "observed times, enchantments, witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit and wizards." A religion of sensuous intoxication reigned on all sides. He made a graven image of the Asheerah ("grove", the obscene symbol of the phallic worship), for which women dedicated to impurity wove hangings in Jehovah's house! (2Ki_21:7.) Sodomites' (qedeeshim), "consecrated men") houses stood nigh to Jehovah's house, for the vilest purposes in the name of religion (2Ki_23:7), Jehovah's altar was cast down (2Ch_33:16), the ark was displaced (2Ch_35:3), the sabbath, the weekly witness for God, was ignored (Isa_56:2; Isa_58:13).
Then Jehovah spoke by the prophets: "Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever heareth it both his ears shall tingle, and I wilt stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab (i.e. I will destroy it as I did Samaria and Ahab), and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, turning it upside down," so as not to leave a drop in it: complete destruction. Tradition represents Manasseh as having sawed Isaiah in sunder for his faithful protest (Heb_11:37). Josephus (Ant. 10:3, sec. 1) says Manasseh slew all the righteous and the prophets day by day, so that Jerusalem flowed with blood, Isaiah (Isa_57:1-4, etc.) alludes also to the "mockings" of which the godly "had trial" (Heb_11:36). The innocent blood thus shed was what the Lord would not pardon the nation, though He accepted Manasseh on repentance and honored the godly Josiah (2Ki_23:26; 2Ki_24:4; Jer_15:4). Judgment at last overtook Manasseh; he would not hear the word, he must hear the rod. Babylon, the occasion of his sin, was the scene of his punishment.
The captain of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon's (see Ezr_4:2; Ezr_4:10; 2Ki_17:24) host, having first crushed the revolt of the Babylonian Merodach Baladan, next took his ally Manasseh "among the thorns," chochim, (rather "with hooks"; an image From the ring passed through the noses of wild beasts to subdue and lead them; so 2Ki_19:28; Eze_29:4), and carried him to Babylon. In affliction he besought the Lord his God (compare Psa_119:67; Psa_119:71; Psa_119:75). The monuments mention "Minasi" (Manasseh) the king of Judah among Esarhaddon's tributaries. Other Assyrian kings governed Babylon by viceroys, but he, like his grandfather Sargon, took the title of its "king," and built a palace and held his court there. A Babylonian tablet was discovered dated by the year of his reign. The undesigned coincidence with secular monuments, whereby Scripture records he brought Manasseh to Babylon (where we might have expected Nineveh), confirms its truth.
The omission from 2 Kings 21 of Manasseh's repentance is due to its having no lasting result so far as the kingdom was concerned. His abolition of outward idolatry did not convert the people, and at his death Amen restored it. Esarhaddon's Babylonian reign was 680-667 B.C.; 676 is fixed on as the date of Manasseh's captivity, the 22nd year of his reign. Manasseh "humbled himself greatly (1Pe_5:6) before the God of his fathers and prayed unto Him, and He was intreated of him and brought him again to Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He is God." This illustrates the exceeding riches of God's grace to the vilest (1Ti_1:15-16). The benefit of sanctified affliction, the efficacy of self abusing suppliant prayer, both these teach experimental knowledge of God (Psa_9:16). Manasseh on his restoration built a wall outside the city of David, W. of Gihon, even to the entering in of "the fish gate" (Zep_1:10 alludes to this), compassing about Ophel.
He took away the strange gods and idol out of Jehovah's house, and all the altars in the mount of the house of Jehovah and in Jerusalem, and repaired Jehovah's altar, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah. The people still sacrificed in the high places, but to Jehovah. The book of the law was as yet a hidden book (2Ch_34:14). He put captains in Judah's fenced cities to guard against Assyria on one side, Egypt on the other. He was buried in his own house (2Ki_21:18) in the garden of Uzza, as not being counted worthy of burial among the kings of David's house. Isaiah and Habakkuk closed their prophesying in his reign; Jeremiah and Zephaniah were but youths in it. Infidelity resulted from the confused polytheism introduced, and from the cutting off of all the faithful (Zep_1:12).
"His prayer and the words of the seers to him were written in the book of the kings of Israel"; while special accounts of his prayer "and how God was intreated, and all his sins ... before he was humbled ... were written among the sayings of the seers" (the Qeri makes it Hozai a prophet: 2Ch_33:18-19). Amon succeeded Manasseh. "The Prayer of Manasseh" in the Apocrypha was rejected from the canon even by the Council of Trent. His recording his own shame and repentance and God's grace to him (though not preserved to us) evidences the reality and depth of his change of heart (Psa_66:16; Joh_4:29; Mar_5:19).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
1. Son of Joseph:
Following the Biblical account of Manasseh (patriarch, tribe, and territory) we find that he was the eider of Joseph's two sons by Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On (Gen_41:51). The birth of a son marked the climax of Joseph's happiness after the long bitterness of his experience. In the joy of the moment, the dark years past could be forgotten; therefore he called the name of the firstborn Manasseh (?causing to forget?), for, said he, God hath made me to forget all my toil. When Jacob was near his end, Joseph brought his two sons to his father who blessed them. Himself the younger son who had received the blessing of the firstborn, Jacob preferred Ephraim, the second son of Joseph, to Manasseh his elder brother, thus indicating the relative positions of their descendants (Gen 48). Before Joseph died he saw the children of Machir the son of Manasseh (Gen_50:23). Machir was born to Manasseh by his concubine, an Aramitess (1Ch_7:14). Whether he married Maacah before leaving for Egypt is not said. She was the sister of Huppim and Shuppim. Of Manasseh's personal life no details are recorded in Scripture. Acccording to Jewish tradition he became steward of his father's house, and acted as interpreter between Joseph and his brethren.
2. The Tribes in the Wilderness and Portion in Palestine:
At the beginning of the desert march the number of Manasseh's men of war is given at 32,200 (Num_1:34 f). At the 2nd census they had increased to 52,700 (Num_26:34). Their position in the wilderness was with the tribe of Benjamin, by the standard of the tribe of Ephraim, on the West of the tabernacle. According to Targum Pseudojon, the standard was the figure of a boy, with the inscription ?The cloud of Yahweh rested on them until they went forth out of the camp.? At Sinai the prince of the tribe was Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur (Num_2:20). The tribe was represented among the spies by Gaddi, son of Susi (Num_13:11, where the name ?tribe of Joseph? seems to be used as an alternative). At the census in the plains of Moab, Manasseh is named before Ephraim, and appears as much the stronger tribe (Num_26:28 ff). The main military exploits in the conquest of Eastern Palestine were performed by Manassites. Machir, son of Manasseh, conquered the Amorites and Gilead (Num_32:39). Jair, son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argob, containing three score cities; these he called by his own name, ?Havvoth-jair? (Num_32:41; Deu_3:4, Deu_3:14). Nobah captured Kenath and the villages thereof (Num_32:42; Jos_17:1, Jos_17:5). Land for half the tribe was thus provided, their territory stretching from the northern boundary of Gad to an undetermined frontier in the North, marching with Geshur and Maacah on the West, and with the desert on the East. The warriors of this half-tribe passed over with those of Reuben and Gad before the host of Israel, and took their share in the conquest of Western Palestine (Josh 22). They helped to raise the great altar in the Jordan valley, which so nearly led to disastrous consequences (Jos_22:10 ff). Golan, the city of refuge, lay within their territory.
The possession of Ephraim and Manasseh West of the Jordan appears to have been undivided at first (Jos_17:16 ff). The portion which ultimately fell to Manasseh marched with Ephraim on the South, with Asher and Issachar on the North, running out to the sea on the West, and falling into the Jordan valley on the East (Jos_17:7 ff). The long dwindling slopes to westward and the fiat reaches of the plain included much excellent soil. Within the territory of Issachar and Asher, Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo, with their villages, were assigned to Manasseh. Perhaps the men of the West lacked the energy and enterprise of their eastern brethren. They failed, in any case, to expel the Canaanites from these cities, and for long this grim chain of fortresses seemed to mock the strength of Israel (Jos_17:11 ff)
Ten cities West of the Jordan, in the portion of Manasseh, were given to the Levites, and 13 in the eastern portion (Jos_21:5, Jos_21:6).
Manasseh took part in the glorious conflict with the host of Sisera (Jdg_5:14). Two famous judges, Gideon and Jephthah, belonged to this tribe. The men of the half-tribe East of Jordan were noted for skill and valor as warriors (1Ch_5:18, 1Ch_5:23 f). Some men of Manasseh had joined David before the battle of Gilboa (1Ch_12:19).
3. Its Place in Later History:
Others, all mighty men of valor, and captains in the host, fell to him on the way to Ziklag, and helped him against the band of rovers (1Ch_12:20 ff). From the half-tribe West of the Jordan 18,000 men, expressed by name, came to David at Hebron to make him king (1Ch_12:31); while those who came from the East numbered, along with the men of Reuben and Gad, 120,000 (1Ch_12:37). David organized the eastern tribes under 2,700 overseers for every matter pertaining to God and for the affairs of the king (1Ch_26:32). The rulers of Manasseh were, in the West, Joel, son of Pedaiah, and in the East, Iddo, son of Zechariah (1Ch_27:20, 1Ch_27:21). Divers of Manasseh humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem at the invitation of Hezekiah to celebrate the Passover (2Ch_30:11). Although not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary, they ate the Passover. Pardon was successfully sought for them by the king, because they set their hearts to seek God (2Ch_30:18 ff).
Of the eastern half-tribe it is said that they went a-whoring after the gods of the land, and in consequence they were overwhelmed and expatriated by Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria (1Ch_5:25 f). Reference to the idolatries of the western half-tribe are also found in 2Ch_31:1; 2Ch_34:6.
There is a portion for Manasseh in Ezekiel's ideal picture (Eze_48:4), and the tribe appears in the list in Rev (Eze_7:6).
The genealogies in Jos_17:1 ff; Num_26:28-34; 1Ch_2:21-23; 1Ch_7:14-19 have fallen into confusion. As they stand, they are mutually contradictory, and it is impossible to harmonize them.
The theories of certain modern scholars who reject the Biblical account are themselves beset with difficulties: e.g. the name is derived from the Arabic, nasa, ?to injure a tendon of the leg.? Manasseh, the Piel part., would thus be the name of a supernatural being, of whom the infliction of such an injury was characteristic. It is not clear which of the wrestlers at the Jabbok suffered the injury. As Jacob is said to have prevailed with gods and men, the suggestion is that it was his antagonist who was lamed. ?It would appear therefore that in the original story the epithet Manasseh was a fitting title of Jacob himself, which might be borne by his worshippers, as in the case of Gad? (EB, under the word, par. 4).
It is assumed that the mention of Machir in Jdg_5:14 definitely locates the Manassites at that time on the West of the Jordan. The raids by members of the tribe on Eastern Palestine must therefore have taken place long after the days of Moses. The reasoning is precarious. After the mention of Reuben (Jdg_5:15, Jdg_5:16), Gilead (Jdg_5:17) may refer to Gad. It would be strange if this warlike tribe were passed over (Guthe). Machir, then probably the strongest clan, stands for the whole tribe, and may be supposed to indicate particularly the noted fighters of the eastern half.
In dealing with the genealogies, ?the difficult name? Zelophehad must be got rid of. Among the suggestions made is one by Dr. Cheyne, which first supposes the existence of a name Salhad, and then makes Zelophehad a corruption of this.
The genealogies certainly present difficulties, but otherwise the narrative is intelligible and self-consistent without resort to such questionable expedients as those referred to above.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
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