2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33
Manasseh: judged, or repentant?
Kings presents Manasseh as the worst king of Judah, with no repentance. 2 Chronicles 33:11–17 adds his captivity in Babylon, his prayer and his reform. A later "Prayer of Manasseh" circulated in Greek and Latin Bibles.
Read 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 in every edition
Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Uncertain connection
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Kings
No original survives.
Chronicles composed c. 4th century BC
2 Chronicles 33:12–13 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.
when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly… and he was intreated of him
KJV of the Masoretic Text.
Composed c. 2nd–1st century BC (debated); earliest copies in the Didascalia (3rd c. AD) and Codex Alexandrinus (5th c.)
Prayer of Manasseh
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
A penitential prayer written in his name. In an appendix of the Vulgate; among the Apocrypha in Protestant Bibles; canonical in the Orthodox tradition. Not his recovered prayer.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
2 Kings 21 has no repentance.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
2 Kings 21 follows the Hebrew.
What changed, and why
Some scholars see Chronicles' account as theological (explaining Manasseh's long reign as reward for repentance); others note that an Assyrian summons of a vassal to Babylon is historically plausible. No Assyrian text records it.
What the evidence shows
- Only Chronicles records Manasseh's repentance.
- Manasseh was taken to Babylon.
- The Prayer of Manasseh is his original prayer.
Sources
Related lessons
- Manasseh, Amon and Judgment →Manasseh reigns fifty-five years, the longest of any king of Judah. He rebuilds the high places, sets up altars for Baal and the host of heaven in the temple courts, makes his son pass through fire, practices divination, places an Asherah image in the temple, and sheds "very much innocent blood." The prophets announce that Jerusalem will be wiped like a dish. His son Amon reigns two years and is assassinated; the people of the land make Josiah king.