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Prayer of Manasseh 1 - The Knee of the Heart

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Audio narration

The Prayer of Manasseh is a whole school of repentance in fifteen verses. It begins with the God before whom all creation trembles, then moves to the appointed gift of repentance, the confession of a sinner bound by his own evil, the bending of the knee of the heart, and the final promise that mercy will become praise. The prayer does not make Manasseh’s sins small. It makes God’s mercy great without turning mercy into sentimentality.

The background is 2 Chronicles 33. Manasseh, son of righteous Hezekiah, became king as a child and led Judah into grave apostasy. He rebuilt the high places, served the host of heaven, set idolatrous altars in the Lord’s house, practiced divination and sorcery, desecrated the temple, and made his children pass through fire in the valley of Ben Hinnom. The text is severe because the sin was severe.

  1. He also passed his children through the fire in the valley of Benennom; and he divined, and used auspices, and sorceries, and appointed those who had divining spirits, and enchanters, and wrought abundant wickedness before the Lord, to provoke him.
  2. So Manasses led astray Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to do evil beyond all the nations which the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.
  3. And the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, and they took Manasses in bonds, and bound him in fetters, and brought him to Babylon.
  4. And when he was afflicted, he sought the face of the Lord his God, and was greatly humbled before the face of the God of his fathers;

Chronicles then says that Manasseh prayed, that God listened to his cry, and that the king was restored to Jerusalem. His repentance did not undo the wounds of his reign, nor did it erase every earthly consequence. It did reveal that no sinner should call repentance impossible when God is still calling him home.

Canonically, the Prayer of Manasseh is not found in the Hebrew Bible. It is preserved in Greek Christian transmission associated with the Septuagintal Odes or Canticles stream, in the Apostolic Constitutions and Didascalia stream, and in Latin appendix or Chronicles traditions. Common NKJV editions usually omit it because they normally follow the Protestant 66-book canon and do not print the deuterocanonical or Apocrypha material. This should be explained calmly. The point is not to mock other Christians, but to understand why Orthodox readers know a prayer that many English Bible readers have never seen.

Latin Bible page where the Prayer of Manasseh begins after Chronicles Source: BnF Latin 15467, image/f. 220, 1270 Latin Bible page where the Prayer begins after Chronicles: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10032204t/f220.item

In Coptic Bright Saturday material, the Prayer of King Manasseh is listed in the Praises of the Prophets / Midnight Praises. That placement matters spiritually. Bright Saturday is the night when the Church stands at the tomb and proclaims Christ’s descent into the depths. Manasseh descends because of his sin. Christ descends because of His mercy. Christ is not another penitent; He is the sinless Savior who enters the lowest place to save sinners.

The God before whom all things tremble (Prayer of Manasseh 1:1-7)

1 O Lord Almighty, the God of our fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of their righteous seed; 2 that hast made the heaven and the earth with all their adornment; 3 that hast bound the sea with the word of thy commandment; that hast closed the abyss and sealed it with thy fearful and glorious name; 4 whom all things revere and tremble before the face of thy power, 5 because the magnificence of thy glory is unendurable and irresistible the wrath of thy threatening against sinners: 6 the mercy of thy promise is both immeasurable and inscrutable; 7 for thou art the Lord most high, compassionate, longsuffering, and most merciful, repenting of the evils of men. Thou, Lord, according to the abundance of thy goodness, hast proclaimed repentance and forgiveness to those that have sinned against thee, and in the multitude of thy kindnesses thou hast decreed for sinners repentance unto salvation.

The prayer begins with God, not with Manasseh’s feelings. This is the first spiritual correction the prayer gives us. A sinner can become trapped either in excuses or in self-hatred. The Prayer of Manasseh does neither. It lifts the soul before the Lord Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Creator of heaven and earth.

That opening is pointed. Manasseh’s reign had been a betrayal of the God of his fathers. He served the host of heaven, built altars to them in the Lord’s courts, and placed an image in the house where God had promised to set His name. Now the prayer confesses that the created powers he once served are not ultimate. The sea is bound by God’s word. The abyss is sealed by God’s fearful and glorious name. All things revere and tremble before Him.

The prayer does not begin with a gentle sentimental picture of God. It names the magnificence of His glory and the irresistible wrath of His threatening against sinners. That matters pastorally. Mercy is not meaningful if God is treated as harmless. Manasseh is not comforted by pretending his sin did not provoke God. He is comforted because the God whose glory is unendurable is also compassionate, longsuffering, and most merciful.

Verse 7 is the doorway into the whole prayer: God has proclaimed repentance and forgiveness to those who have sinned, and He has decreed repentance unto salvation. Repentance is not an emergency loophole invented by the sinner. It belongs to God’s own goodness. The sinner does not create mercy by feeling bad enough. He receives the mercy God has already proclaimed.

This first section also guards Christian confession from becoming self-centered. In confession, the Church does not ask us first to produce a dramatic emotion. She asks us to stand before God truthfully. When the glory of God becomes real, false gods shrink, excuses fall away, and mercy is no longer cheap. It is holy.

💎 Gems from the Fathers

As a thematic witness rather than a direct comment on this prayer, Saint John Chrysostom repeatedly teaches that sin is the true affliction and that the soul needs correction more deeply than the body needs comfort. This helps us hear Manasseh’s opening. The king’s chains are terrible, but the deeper bondage is the evil that brought him there. Repentance begins when the soul stops calling sin normal and sees itself before the majesty and mercy of God.

Repentance appointed for me a sinner (Prayer of Manasseh 1:8-10)

8 Surely thou, O Lord, the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance for the just, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance for me a sinner: 9 for I have sinned above the number of the sand of the sea. My transgressions are multiplied, O Lord, they are multiplied, and I am not worthy to look at or see the height of heaven, for the multitude of my iniquities, 10 being bowed down by many iron bonds, so that I cannot uplift my head, and there is no release for me, because I have provoked thy anger, and have done evil before thee, not doing thy will, nor keeping thy commandments, but setting up abominations and multiplying offences.

Verse 8 is the heart of the prayer’s doctrine of repentance: “thou hast appointed repentance for me a sinner.” Manasseh does not say repentance is appointed for other people, for minor offenders, or for those whose sins are easy to understand. He receives repentance as a gift appointed for him. This is not presumption. It is faith in God’s mercy after the sinner has stopped defending himself.

The prayer names Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the just. Manasseh does not put himself among them. He has betrayed the covenant line into which he was born. Yet he still addresses the God of the fathers, because repentance does not invent a new god suited to the sinner’s shame. It returns to the God whose covenant mercy Manasseh had despised.

His confession is not vague. “My transgressions are multiplied” is repeated, and the repetition matters. The sinner is not offering God an edited version of events. He is not saying, “I made mistakes,” or “I was under pressure,” or “others did worse.” He says he has sinned beyond measure and is unworthy to look toward heaven.

The iron bonds are both historical and spiritual. Chronicles says the Assyrians took Manasseh in bonds and fetters. The prayer sees another bondage under the political humiliation: he is bowed down by many iron bonds and cannot lift his head. Sin had promised power, kingship, and religious control. It left him unable to raise his face.

The confession also names the content of the sin: he provoked God’s anger, did evil before Him, refused God’s will, failed to keep the commandments, set up abominations, and multiplied offences. This is why the guide must not soften Manasseh’s sins. Child sacrifice, idolatry, divination, and temple desecration are not background details. They are the abyss from which the prayer rises.

At the same time, the prayer does not turn confession into despair. Manasseh says there is no release for him from within himself. He does not say there is no release from God. This distinction is vital. Repentance kills self-salvation, not hope. A soul may honestly say, “I cannot free myself,” and still pray because God can release those who are bound.

💎 Gems from the Fathers

As a thematic witness, Saint John Chrysostom’s treatment of the publican and the Pharisee in Luke 18 is useful here. Chrysostom warns that self-justifying speech can destroy a man even when some facts are true, while the publican’s humble cry opens the way to mercy. Manasseh prays with publican-like truth. He does not compare himself favorably with anyone. He stands before God as the sinner who needs release.

The knee of the heart (Prayer of Manasseh 1:11-13)

11 And now I bend the knee of my heart, beseeching thy goodness: 12 I have sinned, Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my transgressions: 13 but I pray and beseech thee, release me, Lord, release me, and destroy me not with my transgressions; keep not evils for me in anger for ever, nor condemn me to the lowest parts of the earth: because thou art God, the God of the repenting;

The phrase “I bend the knee of my heart” is one of the most beautiful descriptions of repentance in the Old Testament inheritance of the Church. Manasseh may have bent his outward knee many times before idols, but now something deeper bends. The heart itself yields.

This is not a rejection of bodily prayer. Orthodox worship teaches the body to repent through standing, bowing, prostrations, fasting, tears, the sign of the Cross, and confession aloud. The body matters. But the prayer insists that the outward knee must not become a substitute for the inward one. A person can stand in church, cross himself, and still refuse to bend the heart. A person can also be physically weak or unable to kneel, yet truly humble the heart before God.

Verse 12 gives the simplest possible confession: “I have sinned, Lord, I have sinned.” The repetition removes evasion. It also removes theatrical cleverness. Manasseh does not need a refined speech. He needs truth. In this way the prayer stands close to the publican’s cry in Luke 18 and to Psalm 50 (NKJV Psalm 51). The soul is not healed by explaining itself brilliantly. It is healed when it stands unveiled before God and asks mercy.

Verse 13 asks for release twice: “release me, Lord, release me.” The repetition echoes the repeated confession. The same mouth that says, “I have sinned,” also says, “release me.” That is the shape of Christian repentance. We do not confess in order to stay forever inside the identity of sin. We confess so that God may free us.

The prayer asks not to be condemned to the lowest parts of the earth because God is “the God of the repenting.” This title is not permission to sin late and repent later at our convenience. Delayed repentance is dangerous because sin hardens the heart and wounds other people while we delay. Manasseh’s story is not a strategy for postponing conversion. It is a warning that even when we have delayed terribly, we must still come now.

The Christological reading must be exact. Manasseh descends into bondage because he sinned. Christ descends into the depths because we sinned. On Bright Saturday the Church does not place Christ beside Manasseh as another penitent. She proclaims the sinless Savior who enters death, Hades, and the lowest places to release those bound by sin and death. The knee of the heart bends because the Lord of mercy has descended lower than our chains.

💎 Gems from the Fathers

Saint John Chrysostom’s publican theme helps again. The publican does not answer accusation with accusation, and he does not ask God to admire his virtues. He strikes the true posture of humility. Manasseh’s prayer gives that humility an Old Testament voice: the heart bends, sin is acknowledged, and mercy is begged from the God who receives the repentant.

Mercy that becomes praise (Prayer of Manasseh 1:14-15)

14 and in me thou wilt shew all thy benevolence, for that me unworthy thou wilt save, according to thy great mercy: 15 and I will praise thee continually all the days of my life: for all the host of the heavens sings to thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The prayer ends with confidence, but not with entitlement. Manasseh says that God will show His benevolence in him and save him according to great mercy. The ground is not Manasseh’s future performance, royal status, or emotional intensity. The ground is God’s mercy.

This is where repentance becomes doxology. The last movement of the prayer is not, “I will feel better,” or “I will escape consequences,” but “I will praise thee continually all the days of my life.” Mercy restores worship. The sinner who had turned the temple toward abominations now wants his remaining days to become praise.

This ending guards against two errors. The first is despair, which says sin has already won and worship is no longer possible. The second is cheap comfort, which wants forgiveness without a changed life. Manasseh’s prayer refuses both. He is unworthy and saved by great mercy; therefore, his life must become praise.

The final line joins the repentant sinner to the host of heaven. This is astonishing. The man who bowed to the host of heaven as created powers now confesses that the host of heaven sings to God. Repentance turns idolatry into worship. It takes what was misdirected and restores it to its proper end: glory to the Lord forever.

On Bright Saturday, this ending becomes Paschal hope. The Church stands before the tomb and already hears praise. Christ’s descent does not merely rescue sinners from punishment. It restores them to worship. The heart bent in repentance can rise in praise because mercy has gone down into the depths and brought back the lost.

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