Prayer of Manasseh

This short work of only 15 verses 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 taking captive by the Assyrians, he prays for mercy (2 Chronicles 33:10-17) and turns from his idolatrous ways.

Prayer of Manasseh is a prayer included in the certain editions of the Greek Septuagint, in an appendix to the Latin Vulgate, and in the Apocrypha of the King James Bible. It is considered apocryphal by Catholics, and almost all Jews and Protestants alike. Clement VIII included the book in an appendix to the Vulgate "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 Prayer of Manasseh is chanted during the Orthodox Christian service of Great Compline.