Four persons and a tribe named Manasseh are recorded in the Bible.
1. The eldest son of Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. His name, derived from Hebrew nasha, means "caused to forget," so named because he was born at a time when Joseph was riding high in Pharaoh's government and the times of hardship as a result of being sold as a slave into Egypt was in the past (Gen 41:51). Manasseh and his brother Ephraim, were adopted by Jacob as his own and made equal with Reuben and Simeon, though in doing so, Jacob also reversed the order of their birthrights (Gen 48:5; 14). Apart from this, and the birth of his son Makir (Gen 50:23) we hear almost nothing of him in the Old Testament.
2. King Manasseh.
3. Two persons, one a descendent of Pahath-Moab and another a descendant of Hashum, are recorded in the list of men who took foreign wives in Ezr 10:30 &33.
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