King Menashe, Hezekiah’s heir and the 14th king of Judah, preferred his grandfather Ahaz’s pagan religious ways. As soon as was crowned, age 12, he brought the idols back - every single one of them and more. His father’s monotheistic movement was wiped off the face of Jerusalem and Judah, and Menashe, who ruled for half a century, from 698-642 BCE, longer than any king of Judah, became notorious in rabbinic tradition as the worst pagan of all the Judean kings.
During his reign, Judah was still a vassal state under Assyrian authority which would explain at least in part his fidelity to the universal ways of worship, alongside global trade. Archeologists point out that during his reign the local trade in olive oil grew to mass scale. But the later generations of rabbis disliked him for his religious ways.
The Mishna states:
“Three kings…have no portion in the World to Come: Jeroboam, Ahab, and Manasseh. “
The first two kings are from the Northern Kingdom - Jeroboam who began the revolt against Jerusalem and built the competing temples, and Ahab who brought in the Phoenician queen and religious ways. Menashe, even more than his grandfather Ahaz, is held guilty by the rabbis not only for bringing Ba’al and the other deities back to Jerusalem but for making YHWH so angry as to be responsible for the destruction of the city - just a few generations away.
In yet another famous Talmudic passage, King Menashe shows up in a dream to one of the rabbis who scoffed at the pagan king. In the dream, detailed in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Pesachim, the king demonstrates his vast knowledge of Torah. Why did you worship idols? The rabbi asks? And the king replies “Had you been there, you would have lifted up the hem of your dress and run along with me to worship the local gods.”
These traditions, according to scholars, echo the political-cultural reality of the time, a rare window of relative stability, ensured partially because of the adherence to the laws and norms of the Assyrian lords. In his scholarly research of this period, W. F. Albright writes in The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra that
“It may be noted that no other period of cuneiform records has yielded any remotely comparable mass of tablets relating to magic and divination, and that the royal Assyrian letters of the time contain numerable references to astrology and magic. It was practically impossible for a small vassal state to keep from being flooded with such idolatrous and superstitious practices which were under royal Assyrian protection.”
In other words - Menashe played along to make sure the empire lets the kingdom stay around.
But the Book of Kings does not see it that way. Several prophets are said to be speaking against him, warning that the worship of foreign gods will result in Jerusalem’s demise, just as Samaria has ceased a few short decades earlier. Menashe is to blame for tipping the scales towards YHWH’s revenge.
In one of the memorable expressions attributed to the prophets of the day, YHWH is warning that one day:
“I will apply to Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the weights of the House of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a dish and turns it upside down.”
This image of a dish wiped clean and turned upside down brings to mind the total loss of freedom, the end of the feast.
One more awful tradition is connected to Menashe. According to another rabbinic source, also echoed in the New Testament, the evil king killed many who opposed his religious reforms - among them his maternal grandfather - who is no other than Isaiah the Prophet. One version claims that the old prophet fled the king, hid in a tree, but was chopped off alive while inside the trunk.
And yet, in one more biblical text, even this evil king is able to repent and is worthy of forgiveness. The parallel story of King Menashe is the Book of Chronicles repeats his pagan path and many horrors, adds a brief period in Assyrian prison for attempted mutiny - but ends with Menashe as a repentant Judean, returning to YHWH and forgiven for his sins.
Perhaps it was the wistful wish of the authors of Chronicles, writing in the aftermath of Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonians, to offer hope to the devastated survivors of Jerusalem and Judea, to alleviate their guilt and give them some ray of redemption? If even the worse king can be forgiven - surely so can they?
Menashe dies and is buried in Jerusalem - though not with his ancestors, curiously. His son Amon will rule for just two years before a coup deposes him and he too is buried next to his father.
Eight year old Josiah is crowned as the 16th king of Judah.
And once again the dish of deities is about to turn upside down: This time, it will be the longest lasting religious revolution. Get ready for The Book.
TODAY: The (Actual) Birth of the Bible!
Join our Monthly Conversation on Zoom:
Join me today Thursday, May 11th 2023, at 1pm ET, for a closer look at the final chapters of the Books of Kings - and the birth pangs of the Bible, carefully created/curated by the royal scribes of Judah in her final years.
This is our 60 min. monthly Live Zoom conversation to go even deeper below the belt.
Please note - this monthly zoom conversation is a perk for paid subscribers of Below the Bible Belt, generously enabling this blog to be free daily for all, and supporting this marathon in the making! Thank you for the continued support in so many ways.
Want to become a paid subscriber today? details here. Sign up: Here
Didn’t get the zoom link? Write to us and let us know!
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.
Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.