Prayer of Manasseh

Lord, Almighty God of our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous descendants,

1O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed;

NoteThe speaker is Manasseh, king of Judah in the seventh century BC, remembered in 2 Kings 21 for filling Jerusalem with idols. 2 Chronicles 33 adds that the Assyrians carried him off to Babylon in chains, that he prayed there, and that the prayer was written down in the royal records. This short piece, composed in Greek several centuries later, supplies the prayer that record mentions. It stands in the Apocrypha rather than in the Hebrew Bible, and in Greek manuscripts it is usually attached to the Psalms rather than placed with the histories.

2you are the one who made the heavens and the earth, with everything that adorns them.

2who hast made heaven and earth, with all the ornament thereof;

NoteKJV "all the ornament thereof" translates the Greek word kosmos, which meant both the ordered arrangement of a thing and its decoration, and which later came to mean the universe itself. The line echoes Genesis 2:1, "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them": not just the container but everything that fills and orders it.

3You are the one who set a boundary for the sea by the word of your command. You shut up the deep and sealed it by your dread and glorious name.

3who hast bound the sea by the word of thy commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and glorious name;

NoteAncient Hebrew poetry pictures the sea as a force that has to be penned in, with a shoreline set as its legal limit; see Job 38:8 to 11 and Proverbs 8:29. "The deep" is the mass of water below the world, the same word used in Genesis 1:2. To seal something was to close it and stamp it with the owner's mark, as with a document or a tomb door, making it binding and not to be opened by anyone else; here the seal is God's own name. KJV "terrible" carries its 1611 sense of dread-inspiring, not its modern sense of bad or of poor quality.

4All people fear you and tremble before your power, because the greatness of your glory is more than anyone can bear, and your angry warning to sinners cannot be endured.

4whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable:

NoteKJV "importable" is not a printer's error and has nothing to do with importing goods. It is an older English word, from Latin importabilis, meaning unbearable, impossible to carry.

5But the mercy you promise cannot be measured and cannot be searched out,

5but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable;

NoteThe two words picture two failed attempts: no one can take the measure of this promise, and no one can explore it to its far end. The pair is a standard way of saying a thing has no limit that can be reached.

6for you are the Most High Lord. You have great compassion, you are slow to become angry, you are very merciful, and you relent about the evils of people. Lord, in your great goodness you have promised that those who have sinned against you may turn from their sin and be forgiven. In your endless mercy you have appointed such a turning for sinners, so that they may be saved.

6for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee: and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved.

NoteKJV "repentest of the evils of men" does not mean God is sorry for what people have done. The Greek verb means to change one's mind or relent, and the clause is read in two ways: that God relents from the harm he had announced against people, or that he holds back over human wickedness instead of punishing it at once. The prayer does not settle between them. "Repentance" here translates metanoia, a change of mind that turns a person around and back; "hast appointed repentance" means God has established that turning as the way back for sinners, not that he assigns a mood to them.

7So then, Lord, you are the God of those who do right, and you did not appoint this turning from sin for those who do right, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who did not sin against you. You appointed it for me, who am a sinner.

7Thou therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner:

NoteIn Jewish writings of this period Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were often spoken of as men with nothing to repent of, a way of naming an extreme of righteousness against which the speaker measures himself. The Greek can also be read more broadly as "the righteous" as a class, with the three named as its examples.

8For I have sinned more times than there are grains of sand by the sea. My wrongdoings are many, Lord; my wrongdoings are many. I am not worthy to look up and see how high the sky is, because my sins are so many.

8for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied: my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities.

Note"The sands of the sea" is a fixed idiom for a quantity past counting, used all through the Hebrew Bible. The standing posture for prayer was upright with the eyes and hands lifted toward the sky, so saying he is not worthy to look up and see the height of heaven is saying he is unfit even to take the ordinary position of someone praying.

9I am bent down under many iron chains, so that I cannot lift my head, and I get no relief. For I stirred up your anger and did evil in front of you. I did not do what you wanted, and I did not keep your commands. I set up detestable things and made my offenses many.

9I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any release: for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee: I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments: I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences.

Note2 Chronicles 33:11 says Manasseh was taken to Babylon with a hook in his nose and bound in fetters, and the prayer pictures him still in them, bent under their weight so that he cannot straighten up. "Abominations" in the Old Testament usually means idols and the equipment set up for their worship; 2 Chronicles 33 lists the altars, the carved images and the idol Manasseh placed inside the temple itself.

10So now I bend the knee of my heart, begging you for your kindness.

10Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace.

Note"The knee of mine heart" is a phrase found nowhere else in the Bible. Kneeling was the body's way of admitting someone else's authority, and a man in irons cannot kneel, so the prayer moves the gesture inward.

11I have sinned, Lord, I have sinned, and I admit the wrong things I have done.

11I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities:

12So I humbly beg you: forgive me, Lord, forgive me. Do not destroy me along with my sins. Do not be angry with me forever by keeping harm in store for me. Do not condemn me to the lower parts of the earth. For you are God, the God of those who turn from their sin.

12wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquites. Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me to the lower parts of the earth. For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent;

Note"Reserving evil for me" means storing up punishment to be paid out later, like a debt kept on the books rather than cancelled. "The lower parts of the earth" is the world of the dead, called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek, pictured as lying beneath the ground, the place people go down to when they die.

13In me you will show all your goodness, for you will save me, who am not worthy, in keeping with your great mercy.

13and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy.

14So I will praise you forever, all the days of my life. All the powers of the heavens praise you, and the glory is yours forever and ever. Amen.

14Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Note"The powers of the heavens" translates a Greek phrase covering the armies of heaven, understood either as the angelic beings who serve God or as the sun, moon and stars drawn up in their ranks. Ancient readers did not always draw a sharp line between the two.