Manasseh of Judah

The King Manasseh (Hebrew מנשה; * to 708 BC; † around 642 or 641 BC), v., about the reports, the Bible, reigned between 696/95 and 642/41 BC the southern kingdom of Judah.

History

The historic King Manasseh accepts 696 BC with 12 years the government. Judah was completely destroyed by the campaign of Sennacherib in 701 BC and much of the Shephelah the Philistine among neighboring states. Jerusalem was crowded by the events of 720 BC (Samaria ) and 701 BC ( Sennacherib ) with refugees and to three times its original population (about 60,000 ) and area ( about 65 ha) grown.

After the Assyrian conquest of Israel, as a result of the uprising under Hezekiah, the surrounding city-states along the coast and the fertile Shephelah, Manasseh stood as an Assyrian vassal faced with the task of Judah, to restructure, to open up new sources of money for the high tribute payments and the supply of food re- organize. He drove the massive colonization of the southern steppe, the Beersheba valley and the hill country, ahead, which had to take over the task of the lost granary Shephelah. Stand Hezekiah faced with the task of integrating the Israelites fled from the north ideologically, it was Manasseh reserved to promote the concentration of the economy on the central power of the king and his palace bureaucracy. He built fortresses and fortified agricultural settlements in the Judean Desert, in the southern hill country and in the eastern Negev. He took a leading role in the incense trade on the südjudäischen trade routes from the Edomite Arava by the Beersheba Valley to Gaza and was regarded as a loyal vassal of the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Assurbanipal Assurhaddon. He actively supported the military enterprises of Assyria against Egypt, and Judah was the end of his reign economically recovered and handed over to his old western borders of Amon his son.

Biblical report

Manasseh extremely long reign of 55 years is 33.1 to 20 not taken into account in the text of the two biblical accounts in 2 Kings 21.1 to 18 and 2 Chronicles. The account in 2 Kings 21.1 to 18, who belongs to the Deuteronomic history, blames Manasseh apostasy for the downfall of Judah. Manasseh is between the key reports about his father Hezekiah (2 Kings 18.1 to 20.21 ), and his grandson Josiah (2 Kings 22.1 to 23.30 ) probably negative contrasts for ideological reasons and kept small.

The mother of Manasseh was Hephzibah ( from another source: Abijah Bat- Zechariah ). Should they have been manassitischer origin, as would be unusual name Manasseh explain.

Also, archaeological investigations have revealed that Judah and Manasseh strongly participated in the important trade with Assyria Arab products such as incense. The discovery of a Hebrew seal of the 7th century, with südarabischem name, supports the theory that Manasseh Meshullemeth woman, a daughter of Haruz from Jotbah ( 2 Kgs 21,19 EU), was an Arab.