The son of Hezekiah and the father of Amon, Manasseh was also the longest reigning king of Judah, ruling for 55 years from c.696 BC, serving the first ten years of his reign in a coregency with his father. Politically he was, like his grandfather Ahaz, a loyal vassal of the Assyrians, though this included a short time as a prisoner in Babylon, the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon" (2 Chron 33:11). Though he is named as a tributary in one of Essarhaddon's documentary prisms, little is known about him despite his long reign.
From the point of view of Old Testament narrators, Manasseh was a legend for evil for most of his life; "Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites" (2 Chron 33:9).
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