Prayer of Manasseh

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Hebrew Bible or Old Testament for details see Biblical canon
Jewish, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Torah/Pentateuch Joshua (Jesus Nave) Judges Ruth 1–2 Samuel 1–2 Kings 1–2 Chronicles Ezra (see Esdras for other names) Nehemiah (see Esdras) Esther Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Minor prophets
Roman Catholic and Orthodox include but Jews and Protestants exclude: Tobit Judith 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Wisdom (of Solomon) Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) (Wisdom of Sirach) Baruch, includes Letter of Jeremiah (Additions to Jeremiah) Additions to Daniel Additions to Esther
Orthodox (Synod of Jerusalem) include: 1 Esdras (see Esdras for other names) 3 Maccabees 4 Maccabees (in appendix but not canonical) Prayer of Manasseh Psalm 151
Russian and Ethiopian Orthodox includes: 2 Esdras (see Esdras for other names)
Ethiopian Orthodox Bible includes: Jubilees Enoch 1–3 Meqabyan
Syriac Peshitta Bible includes: Psalm 152–155 2 Baruch This box: view • talk • edit

The Prayer of Manasseh is a short work of only 15 verses that purports to be the penitential prayer of the Judean king Manasseh, who is recorded in the Bible as one of the most idolatrous (2 Kings 21:1-18). However, after having been taken captive by the Assyrians, he prays for mercy (2 Chronicles 33:10-17) and turns from his idolatrous ways.

The Prayer of Manasseh is included in certain editions of the Greek Septuagint; for example, the 5th-century A.D. Codex Alexandrinus includes the Prayer among fourteen Odes appearing just after the Psalms.^[1] It also appears in an appendix to the Latin Vulgate, and in the Apocrypha of the King James Bible. It is considered apocryphal by Catholics, and by almost all Jews and Protestants alike. Clement VIII included the book in an appendix to the Vulgate stating that it should continue to be read "lest it perish entirely". In some editions of the Septuagint, it forms a part of the Book of Odes. It is accepted as a deuterocanonical book by some Orthodox Christians, though it does not appear in Bibles printed in modern Greece, no matter whether these Bibles are in ancient or in modern Greek language. In the Ethiopian Bible, this text appears within 2 Chronicles. The book appears in ancient Syriac, Old Slavonic, Ethiopic, and Armenian translations.^[2]

The Prayer of Manasseh is chanted during the Orthodox Christian service of Great Compline. It is also used as a canticle in the Daily Office of the 1979 U.S. Book of Common Prayer.