When it is said
It is read at Great Compline, the long late-evening service of Great Lent, the fast before Easter. It comes just after Psalm 51, David’s psalm of repentance, and Psalm 102. The Greek and the Slavonic books have it in the same place.
Outside Lent the Church says a shorter service, Little Compline, which does not have it.
Where it comes from
Author doubtful
A king who came back
Manasseh was a king of Judah who led his people into the worship of idols. The Second Book of Chronicles tells how the Assyrians took him to Babylon in bronze shackles. In his distress he humbled himself and prayed. God heard him and brought him home to Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.
2 Chronicles 33:10-13, Berean Standard Bible
Who wrote it?
Chronicles says Manasseh’s own prayer was written down in the records of the kings of Israel, which are now lost. The prayer we have was built on that story by a later writer, who put it in his mouth. Most scholars think it was written in Greek in the second or first century BC. Old copies of the Greek Old Testament place it after the Psalms. The oldest is the Codex Alexandrinus, from the 400s.
Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), Apocrypha: the Prayer of Manasses; Wikipedia, Prayer of Manasseh
Named at confession
In the Orthodox service of confession, the priest prays over the person confessing. His prayer remembers that God accepted Manasseh’s prayer of repentance, and asks God to accept this person too. It recalls that God has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but would have him turn back and live.
G. V. Shann, Book of Needs (1894): the Order concerning Confession
What the words mean
The iron chains
“I am bent low by many iron chains” fits the story, for Manasseh prayed as a prisoner. The Apostolic Constitutions, a book of Church rules from the 300s, quote the whole prayer. They tell bishops to set it before sinners as an example of repentance. And they add that, as he prayed, a flame appeared around him and his chains fell off.
Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, chapter 22; Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), Apostolic Constitutions
Which Bibles have it?
Orthodox Christians count the prayer as part of Scripture. Jews, Catholics and Protestants do not. Still, the Clementine Vulgate, the Catholic Latin Bible, keeps it in an appendix. And the King James Bible of 1611 printed it among its Apocrypha.
Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), Apocrypha: the Prayer of Manasses; Wikipedia, Prayer of Manasseh
The Scripture in it
And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition. So He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.
So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors, and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Κύριε παντοκράτορ, ὁ Θεὸς τῶν Πατέρων ἡμῶν, τοῦ Ἀβραάμ, καὶ Ἰσαάκ, καὶ Ἰακώβ, καὶ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτῶν τοῦ δικαίου,
ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν σύν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ αὐτῶν, ὁ πεδήσας τὴν θάλασσαν τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ προστάγματός Σου, ὁ κλείσας τὴν ἄβυσσον, καὶ σφραγισάμενος αὐτὴν τῷ φοβερῷ καὶ ἐνδόξῳ ὀνόματί Σου,
ὃν πάντα φρίσσει καὶ τρέμει ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς δυνάμεώς Σου, ὅτι ἄστεκτος ἡ μεγαλοπρέπεια τῆς δόξης Σου, καὶ ἀνυπόστατος ἡ ὀργὴ τῆς ἐπὶ ἁμαρτωλοῖς ἀπειλῆς Σου,
ἀμέτρητόν τε καὶ ἀνεξιχνίαστον τὸ ἔλεος τῆς ἐπαγγελίας Σου.
Σὺ γὰρ εἶ Κύριος ὕψιστος, εὔσπλαγχνος, μακρόθυμος, καὶ πολυέλεος, καὶ μετανοῶν ἐπὶ κακίας ἀνθρώπων.
Σύ, Κύριε, κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῆς χρηστότητός Σου ἐπηγγείλω μετάνοιαν, καὶ ἄφεσιν τοῖς ἡμαρτηκόσι Σοι,
καὶ τῷ πλήθει τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν Σου ὥρισας μετάνοιαν ἁμαρτωλοῖς εἰς σωτηρίαν.
Σὺ οὖν, Κύριε, ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων, οὐκ ἔθου μετάνοιαν δικαίοις, τῷ Ἀβραάμ, καὶ Ἰσαάκ, καὶ Ἰακώβ, τοῖς οὐχ ἡμαρτηκόσι Σοι,
ἀλλ' ἔθου μετάνοιαν ἐπ' ἐμοὶ τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ, διότι ἥμαρτον ὑπὲρ ἀριθμὸν ψάμμου θαλάσσης.
Ἐπλήθυναν αἱ ἀνομίαι μου, Κύριε, ἐπλήθυναν αἱ ἀνομίαι μου, καὶ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος ἀτενίσαι, καὶ ἰδεῖν τὸ ὕψος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ἀδικιῶν μου,
κατακαμπτόμενος πολλῷ δεσμῷ σιδηρῷ, εἰς τὸ μὴ ἀνανεῦσαι τὴν κεφαλήν μου, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι μοι ἄνεσις,
διότι παρώργισα τὸν θυμόν Σου, καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν ἐνώπιόν Σου ἐποίησα, μὴ ποιήσας τὸ θέλημά Σου, καὶ μὴ φυλάξας τὰ προστάγματά Σου.
Καὶ νῦν, κλίνω γόνυ καρδίας, δεόμενος τῆς παρὰ Σοῦ χρηστότητος.
Ἡμάρτηκα, Κύριε, ἡμάρτηκα, καὶ τὰς ἀνομίας μου ἐγὼ γινώσκω, ἀλλ' αἰτοῦμαι δεόμενος.
Ἄνες μοι, Κύριε, ἄνες μοι, καὶ μὴ συναπολέσῃς με ταῖς ἀνομίαις μου,
μηδὲ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα μηνίσας τηρήσῃς τὰ κακά μοι, μηδὲ καταδικάσῃς με ἐν τοῖς κατωτάτοις τῆς γῆς·
διότι Σὺ εἶ Θεός, Θεὸς τῶν μετανοούντων, καὶ ἐν ἐμοὶ δείξεις πᾶσαν τὴν ἀγαθωσύνην Σου,
ὅτι ἀνάξιον ὄντα, σώσεις με κατὰ τὸ πολὺ ἔλεός Σου, καὶ αἰνέσω Σε διὰ παντὸς ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς ζωῆς μου.
Ὅτι Σὲ ὑμνεῖ πᾶσα ἡ δύναμις τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ Σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, Ἀμήν.