The Prayer of Manasses
A wicked king's brief, heartfelt prayer of repentance and mercy.
The Prayer of Manasses is presented as the penitential prayer of King Manasseh of Judah, a notoriously wicked king whose late-life repentance is mentioned but not quoted in 2 Chronicles 33. Just one chapter long, its compact plea for mercy reads much like the penitential songs of Psalms. Read it in full at Prayer of Manasses chapter 1.
About Prayer of Manasses
The Prayer of Manasses is a brief Apocryphal book included in the King James Version with Apocrypha, presented as the penitential prayer of King Manasseh of Judah - a notoriously wicked king whose late-life repentance is mentioned, but not quoted, in 2 Chronicles 33. Just one chapter long, it is a compact, heartfelt confession of sin and plea for divine mercy, widely used in later Christian liturgy as a model prayer of repentance. Read the Prayer of Manasses online here, verse by verse.