Menasheh (Manasseh)

מנשה


Mis-pronounced and mis-spelled as Manasseh in the English of the King James Bible, as though the third letter were a Seen (ש) and not a Sheen (ש).

Genesis 41:50 names him as the elder son of Yoseph by Asnat (אסנת), the daughter of Poti-Pherah (פוטיפרע), priest of On (און); he was later adopted by Ya'akov (Jacob) but supplanted by his younger brother Ephrayim (אפרים).

Genesis 46:20: ibid.

Genesis 48:1 ff/13-20: Ya'akov blesses his grandsons, younger first, exactly as Yitschak (Isaac) did to Ya'akov and Esav previously. Clearly from the text Ya'akov knows what he is doing, and means it this way, despite Yoseph's protests. It fits the pattern of ultimogeniture established previously, though evidently the Egyptian Yoseph did not practice it. The Tanist twinning with Ephrayim is important, especially as both brothers replaced Yoseph in the tribal amphictyony, and Ephrayim later became the alternate - indeed the more common name - for the confederation with Yehudah under David.

Genesis 50:23 names his son Machir (מכיר). The name means "sold", which links him to several ancestors, all of them first-borns, whose birthright and paternal blessing was forfeited. Does the name indicate an indentured servant, sold in the same way that Yoseph was?

The root of Menasheh means "one who forgets", according to the lexicographers. The verbal form is evident from the vowel structure: the Pi'el or intensive form. We can thus treat the Mem (מ) as a prefix and what remains is the root: Nashah (נשה) which does indeed mean "to forget", and would become Menasheh in the Pi'el form.

But there is another Nasheh (נשה), quite unconnected to that one, and it appears crucially in Genesis 32:33, immediately after Ya'akov's wrestling match at Penu-El, when "the man", his adversary, has touched the hollow of his thigh and put it out of joint; we are told: "Al ken lo yochlu beney Yisra'el et gid ha-nasheh asher al kaph ha-yerech - על כן לא יאכלו בני ישראל את גיד הנשה אשר על כף הירד – therefore the Beney Yisra-El do not eat of the sinew at the top of the thigh." This is the origins of the Passover rite, as is explained in the commentary on the text; the Nasheh is the central nerve or tendon that passes through the thigh and leg to the ankle. Some will no doubt argue against this theory, which is inconvenient to say the least; the retort is twofold. a) find an explanation of why anyone would name their child, or take as a royal name, "he who forgets"; b) Nota Bene – Penu-El, where Ya'akov wrestled, is located within the tribal territory of Menasheh! It may be that we have found the man with whom Ya'akov wrestled.

Genesis 49:19: Menasheh's blessing: "He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." A self-fulfilling prophesy, if you are making it several hundred years after the event!

Joshua 13:29 ff and 17:7 ff give details of Menasheh's territory, which straddled the river Yarden (Jordan), having the other important Jacobite cities of Machanayim within its eastern, and Shechem within its western hegemony.

It is also pointed out, and not for the first time, that the territory of his son Machir came in two portions, just as Yoseph's did through his sons. The division into portions (the Yehudit word for portion is "shechem"!) has a religious significance which is Tanist in nature - a reflection of the waxing-waning phases of both the sun and moon.

2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 record a king of Yehudah (699-644 BCE) who was named Menasheh; a son of Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah - חזקיה), he was renowned for his idolatry, superstition and cruelty towards the righteous.

Judges 18:30 speaks of a Yehonatan (יהוֹנָתָן - Jonathan), the son of Gershom (גֵּרְשֹׁם), the son of Menasheh, who was one of the sons of Dan who set up a graven image and served it as priests.

See also Ezra 10:30-33.

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