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The Hebrew version of 2 Chronicles has Manasseh repent in exile and be restored to his throne, dropping the charge that his sins doomed Judah. The Greek Septuagint translation keeps the repentance but still has God exile Judah for what Manasseh did.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Chronicles 33:13
Hebrew Bible
11 So the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria. They seized Manasseh, put hooks in his nose, bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon. 12 In his pain Manasseh asked the Lord his God for mercy and truly humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. 13 When he prayed to the Lord, the Lord responded to him and answered favorably his cry for mercy. The Lord brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh realized that the Lord is the true God. 14 After this Manasseh built up the outer wall of the City of David on the west side of the Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate and all around the terrace; he made it much higher. He placed army officers in all the fortified cities in Judah.
LXX 2 Chronicles 35:19
Septuagint
19 in the eighteenth year of the dominion of Josiah. 19a And King Josiah set on fire those who have a divining spirit and the wizards and the teraphin and the idols and the karasima that were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law that are written in the document that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 19b There was no one like him before him, who returned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses, and after him, one like him did not arise, 19c except the Lord did not turn back from the wrath of his great rage, with which rage the Lord was angry against Judah over all the commands that Manasseh provoked to anger. 19d And the Lord said, “And I removed Judah from my face just as I removed Israel, and I thrust away the city that I chose, Jerusalem, and the house about which I said, ‘My name will be there.’” 20 Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the river Euphrates, and King Josiah went to a meeting with him.
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Notes and References
“... Originating sometime in the second century BCE, Septuagint Chronicles presents a powerful alternative to the Chronicles’ narrative that has come down to us in the Masoretic Text. In Septuagint Chronicles, God punishes Israel for Manasseh’s wrongdoings despite his repentance. The tradition preserved in Chronicles is reproduced at the beginning of Septuagint Chronicles. Manasseh is an evildoer who is taken captive, repents, and is then restored by God to his kingdom. In the subsequent celebration of Josiah and description of Judah’s fall, however, the author of Septuagint Chronicles inserts Kings’ devastating pronouncements against Manasseh: Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the anger of his great rage with which the Lord was angry with rage against Judah for all the provocations with which Manasseh provoked him to anger. And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah from my presence as I removed Israel and have rejected the city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’” (Septuagint 2 Chronicles 35:19) ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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