The tribe descended from Manasseh, son of Joseph. They were, numerically, the smallest of all the tribes to leave Egypt, though by the time the second census was taken, they had become one of the most numerous (Num 1:35; 26:34). Once they had conquered the territories of the eastern kings, Og king of Bashan and Sihon king of the Amorites, half the tribe of Manasseh, together with Reuben and Gad, asked Moses to be allowed to settle there. Thus did a large portion of that eastern land, what was called Gilead, become the inheritance of half the tribe. The other half of the tribe received their inheritance in some of the best lands north of Ephraim and including parts of the fertile Jezreel Valley. Gideon, whom God raised to rescue Israel from the oppression of the Midianites was probably the tribe's most illustrious sons (Judg 6:15). His son, Abimelech, by murdering his brothers—seventy of theem—was the first to attempt establishing dynastic rule over Israel; but his reign was quickly brought to an end when he died igloriously, his head cracked by a mill-stone cast over the wall by a woman (Judg 9). As with the rest of the northern tribes, Manasseh was taken into permanent exile under the Assyrians in the late 8th Cent BC.
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