Illuminated Coptic sanctuary banner

Prayer of Manasseh 1 - The Knee of the Heart

25 min read

Audio narrationAlso in your podcast app

This narration was recorded before the latest revision. The text on this page is current.

Audio notice: This narration was recorded before the latest revision. The text in this study is current.

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.

Manasseh’s fall and return (2 Chronicles 33:6-13).

  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. And he set the graven image, the molten statue, the idol which he made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever;
  3. and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I gave to their fathers, if only they will take heed to do all things which I have commanded them, according to all the law and the ordinances and the judgments given by the hand of Moses.
  4. 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.
  5. And the Lord spoke to Manasses, and to his people: but they hearkened not.
  6. 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.
  7. 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;
  8. and he prayed to him: and he hearkened to him, and listened to his cry, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom: and Manasses knew that the Lord he is God.

The turn is unmistakable: the king who would not hear God now cries to Him, and God hears. In 2 Chronicles 33:15-16, Manasseh removes the foreign gods and the image from the Lord’s house, takes away the idolatrous altars, repairs the Lord’s altar, offers peace-offerings and thank-offerings, and tells Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Repentance begins within the heart, but it reaches the places where that heart has done harm.

Personal mercy and national consequence must be held together. Chronicles tells the truth about Manasseh’s humiliation, prayer, restoration, and reform (2 Chronicles 33:12-16). Kings tells the truth about the innocent blood and corrupted worship that outlived him: even after Josiah’s reform, judgment still bears the mark of Manasseh’s provocations (2 Kings 23:26; 24:3-4). Jeremiah 15:4 also names Manasseh as a cause of Judah’s coming distress. Forgiveness does not make the dead live again within this history or undo the damage passed to another generation. We may receive mercy while still owing truth, restitution where possible, and patient care to those we have wounded. No sinner should call repentance impossible; no forgiven sinner should call its consequences imaginary.

The Prayer of Manasseh is absent from the Hebrew Bible but preserved in Christian scriptural and liturgical transmission. The book overview traces its place among the Odes and within ancient church orders, and explains why most common NKJV editions omit it.

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

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Prayer of Manasseh is read among the Bright Saturday prophecies. The St. Bishoy Apocalypse Night service book places Hezekiah’s prayer (Isaiah 38:10-20) immediately before the Prayer of Manasseh, which is followed by Isaiah’s First Prayer (Isaiah 26:9-20).1 The father prays from the gates of Sheol, rendered by Brenton as “the gates of the grave” (Isaiah 38:10); the son begs not to be condemned to “the lowest parts of the earth” (Prayer of Manasseh 1:13). Both stand at the edge of death, and both are heard. St. Cyril of Jerusalem also places their examples together in Catechetical Lecture 2, sections 14-15, turning from the repentance of Manasseh to the prayer of Hezekiah.2

The sequence has a further, sobering tenderness. The tradition reported by St. Cyril holds that Manasseh sawed Isaiah asunder (Catechetical Lecture 2, section 14; compare Hebrews 11:37, which does not name the victim or the king), yet this service book sets the murderer’s prayer beside the prophet’s.31 This does not excuse the murder. It refuses to declare the murderer beyond the call to repentance.

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, freely and as Lord. Christ is not another penitent; He is the sinless Savior who willingly 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.

Verse 3 belongs to a wider scriptural confession of God’s rule over the waters. In Job 38:8-11 He shuts the sea within gates and sets its boundary; in Jeremiah 5:22 even its raging waves cannot pass the limit He appointed; Psalm 104:9 (LXX 103:9) praises the bound they cannot cross. Manasseh had treated created powers as masters. He now confesses the Lord who commands them. The sea’s obedience exposes the king’s disobedience, but it also gives him hope: the evil that has overwhelmed his life has never become stronger than God.

The same verse says that God has “closed the abyss and sealed it.” Revelation 20:1-3 likewise presents the abyss shut and sealed under divine authority. The whole book of Revelation is read later that same Apocalypse Night in the St. Bishoy service book.1 This is a scriptural resonance, not proof of why the prayers were placed in this order. The sinner prays within a creation whose depths remain under God’s command; the Church hears that confession on the night she proclaims the Lord’s victory over death.

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.

The description “compassionate, longsuffering, and most merciful” in verse 7 recalls God’s proclamation of His name in Exodus 34:6; Joel 2:13 and Jonah 4:2 join this same mercy to His relenting from threatened evil. God’s “repenting” here does not mean that He confesses a fault or changes His character. God does not change (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6); the language describes His unchanging mercy meeting a changed sinner. Manasseh may turn because the Lord has remained faithful. Repentance is possible precisely because mercy does not depend on the instability of our moods.

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.

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 words “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who have not sinned against thee” need to be read honestly. Genesis records Abraham’s concealment concerning Sarah (Genesis 12:13; 20:2), Isaac’s similar claim about Rebekah (Genesis 26:7), and Jacob’s deception of his father (Genesis 27:18-29). In the prayer’s logic, “just” names covenant faithfulness set against Manasseh’s apostasy, not absolute sinlessness. He compares himself with the patriarchs only to condemn himself, the reverse of the Pharisee’s favorable comparison in Luke 18:9-14. He has betrayed the covenant into which he was born, yet he still addresses the God of the fathers. Repentance returns to the God whose mercy he had despised.

The Church confesses Christ alone without sin. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “One alone is without sin, even Jesus who purges our sins” (Catechetical Lecture 2, section 10).4 The fourth-century church order Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 18, likewise teaches that the incarnate Lord alone is free from sin and that the patriarchs’ faults are recorded to teach repentance and hope, not contempt for them.5 Romans 3:23 and 1 John 1:8 forbid the reader to turn Manasseh’s comparison into a claim that other human beings have no need of mercy.

There is a painful reversal between verses 1 and 9. God promised Abraham descendants like the sand by the sea (Genesis 22:17); Abraham’s heir now confesses sins “above the number of the sand of the sea.” The image of promised abundance has become the measure of his transgression. He cannot hide behind his ancestry; he must return to the God who gave the promise.

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.

Fr. Tadros Malaty and Deacon Bishoy Boshra Behnam also read this as Manasseh taking the publican’s posture in their The Prayer of Manasseh the Wicked King, p. 12.6 The posture also gives a precise Gospel parallel. In verse 9 Manasseh is unworthy to see the height of heaven; in verse 10 he cannot uplift his head. In Luke 18:13, the publican will not raise his eyes to heaven. Each stands before God without claiming a better record than someone else. Humility is not an attempt to make God admire our self-accusation. It is the end of our attempt to be our own judge and savior.

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. 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 💎: Repentance is still possible

St. Cyril of Jerusalem uses Manasseh’s story directly when teaching those preparing for baptism. In Catechetical Lecture 2, section 14, he names the king’s idolatry, innocent bloodshed, and, according to the tradition he reports, the sawing apart of Isaiah. Captivity becomes a course of healing through repentance. Cyril does not reduce the evil to make forgiveness credible; he names its horror and then confronts the despairing hearer:

“If He who sawed the Prophet asunder was saved by repentance, shall not thou then, having done no such great wickedness, be saved?”3

This is consolation with a demand inside it. If we insist that our sins place us beyond mercy, we are treating their power as greater than God’s. Manasseh cannot free himself, but he can stop defending himself and turn toward the One who hears.

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. His words belong beside the publican’s cry in Luke 18:9-14 and David’s confession in Psalm 51 (LXX 50). 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 iron bonds of verse 10 and the plea “release me” in verse 13 meet in Psalm 107:10-16 (LXX 106:10-16). There, people sit in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in iron because they have rebelled against God’s words. They cry to Him, and He breaks their bonds, shatters the gates, and crushes the iron bars. The pattern is neither innocence rewarded nor captivity admired. Rebels are heard when they cry to the Lord. In Luke 4:18, Christ announces the liberty to captives foretold in Isaiah 61:1. What Manasseh cannot give himself, the Savior comes to give.

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 arrange a sinful life around a planned late conversion. Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 23, gives that abuse of mercy a name: Amon. In its expanded retelling, Manasseh’s son reasons that his father repented in old age, so he can satisfy his desires now and return later. Chronicles records Amon’s refusal to humble himself, his two-year reign, and his death at the hands of his servants (2 Chronicles 33:21-25); the calculation about delayed repentance belongs to the church order’s retelling.7 The warning is aimed at a heart still bargaining with sin, not at a repentant person arriving late. If we have delayed terribly, the call is still to come now.

The Christological reading must be exact. “The lowest parts of the earth” in verse 13 recalls the language of judgment in Psalm 63:9 (LXX 62:10). Ephesians 4:9 says that Christ “descended into the lower parts of the earth.” Manasseh begs not to be sent where, on this very night, the Church proclaims that Christ goes willingly. The shared language reveals the difference: the sinner fears condemnation; the sinless Lord descends sovereignly to save. He is never another penitent. His descent is neither punishment for His own sin nor a helpless fall into captivity. He enters death and Hades freely, as the Savior who releases 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 💎: The prayer of the bound is heard

Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 22, places the whole prayer within an expanded account of 2 Chronicles 33. This is a fourth-century church order instructing bishops in how to receive penitents, not a work attributed here to a named Father. After the prayer, its narrative describes a flame appearing around Manasseh and his iron shackles and chains falling away.8 The flame and falling chains belong to this tradition, not to the account in Chronicles.

The teaching is directed toward the Church’s shepherds as well as the sinner: the one who truly repents must be received with hope. The cry for release is allowed to become a return to worship and fellowship, rather than a sentence of permanent exclusion. This does not mean that every earthly office or position must be restored; reconciliation with God does not cancel the care owed to those harmed.

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.

The phrase “according to thy great mercy” in verse 14 is a verbal link to Psalm 51:1 (LXX 50:3): “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great mercy.” Brenton numbers that line as verse 3 because the superscription occupies verses 1-2. David and Manasseh ask to be saved on the same ground. The greatness of mercy, not the smallness of sin, makes prayer possible.

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.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: Mercy restores dignity

The conclusion of Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 22, gives the meaning of its Manasseh narrative:

“For He not only forgives the penitent, but reinstates them in their former dignity.”8

In the narrative, that dignity includes the king’s return to his kingdom; in the prayer, restored life reaches its proper end in praise. The sentence should never become an automatic promise that repentance restores power over others. Its force is that God does not receive a penitent only to keep him forever outside the life He gives. Mercy draws the sinner back into service and worship.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Begin confession by looking toward God. Verses 1-7 give His majesty and mercy before the list of sins. When shame makes prayer feel impossible, read those verses slowly before naming what you have done. Do not wait until you feel worthy to stand before Him. The Lord who commands the sea has already appointed repentance for sinners.

Let “I have sinned” become particular. Manasseh names refusal of God’s will, broken commandments, and erected abominations. Bring one actual wrong to confession without attaching a defense: a lie maintained, an injury excused, a resentment fed, a duty withheld. Where another person was harmed, ask what truthful apology or repair is possible. Repentance cannot restore yesterday, but it can stop our protecting the wrong today.

Refuse both despair and delay. The king’s helplessness is a reason to cry for release, not a reason to stop praying. Amon’s calculation exposes the opposite danger: calling God’s mercy certain while keeping conversion indefinitely in the future. Take the next act of obedience now. Contact your confessor, relinquish the concealed sin, or begin the repair you have been postponing.

Receive mercy as a calling to praise. The former worshiper of the host of heaven ends by joining that host’s praise of God. Let restored worship reach ordinary service: pray with your family, keep a promise, or do an unnoticed parish task without bargaining for recognition. Deacons serve the LORD; neither the attention of the congregation nor a place of prominence is the end of their service. The same freedom belongs to every servant whose work is offered to Him.

Stand with Manasseh at the words, “I bend the knee of my heart.” Let the excuse you have rehearsed fall silent. Christ is not another penitent beside you; He is the sinless Lord who has willingly entered death to save. Ask Him for the release you cannot give yourself, then offer the life He restores as praise.

Footnotes

  1. St. Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church, Rites of Pascha, Book 6: Apocalypse Night, pp. 22-24, 190-272: service book. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 2: On Repentance, sections 14-15, Gifford translation, NPNF, Second Series, vol. 7: text. ↩

  3. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 2: On Repentance, section 14, Gifford translation, NPNF, Second Series, vol. 7: text. Cyril reports the tradition concerning Isaiah’s death; 2 Chronicles 33 does not narrate it. ↩ ↩2

  4. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 2: On Repentance, section 10, translated by Edwin Hamilton Gifford, NPNF, Second Series, vol. 7: text. ↩

  5. Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 18, translated by James Donaldson, ANF, vol. 7: text. ↩

  6. Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty and Deacon Bishoy Boshra Behnam, The Prayer of Manasseh the Wicked King (2020), p. 12: study. ↩

  7. Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 23, Donaldson translation, ANF, vol. 7: text. Compare 2 Chronicles 33:21-25 for Amon’s reign and death; the stated plan to repent later is the church order’s narrative expansion. ↩

  8. Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 22, Donaldson translation, ANF, vol. 7: text. The whole prayer is embedded in a retelling offered as instruction to bishops on receiving penitents. ↩ ↩2

Reading statusLoading your browser-local progress
Saved only in this browser
Referenced Fathers:

Created: | Updated:

Page Connections

Backlinks