2. (Sept. Mavaxa^i v. r. Maxava^i.) A town or region to which certain descendants of Ehud, of the tribe of Benjamin, appear to have been exiled from Geba by an act of his father Bela (1 Chron. viii, 6). The context woidd seem to indicate some locality in the land of Moab. See Shaharaim. Some refer it to the Me- NUCHAH of Judah (Judg. ix, 43, A. Vers, "with ease;" comp. 1 Chron. ii, 52, 54), but with little probability. See Menichite.
Man'ahethite (1 Chron. ii, 52). See Hatsi-ham- Menuchoth.
Manasse'as (Mava(jar)aQ v. r. Mavflcrcri'ncVulg. Manasses), given (1 Esdr. ix, 31) in place of the Ma- NASSEii (q. v.), 4, of the Hebrew list (Ezra x, 30).
Manas'seh (Heb. Menasseh', niZJ3^, who makes to forget ; see Gen. xli, 51 ; Sept., Josephus, and N. T. Mo- va<jai](; ; "Manasses" in Matt, i, 10; Rev. vii, 6), the name of four men and of a tribe descended from one of them ; also of another man mentioned by Josephus.
1. The elder of the two sons of Joseph, born in Eg3'pt (Gen. xli, 51 ; xlvi, 20) of Asenath, the priest's daugh- ter of Heliopolis. B.C. 1882. He was afterwards, to- gether with his brother, adopted by Jacob as his own (xlviii, 1), by which act each became the head of a tribe in Israel. B.C. 185G. See Jacob. The act of adoption was, however, accompanied by a clear intima- tion from Jacob that the descendants of Manasseh, al- though the elder, would be far less inmierous and pow- erful than those of the younger Ephraim. The result corresponded remarkably with this intimation. See Ephraim. He married a Syrian concubine, by whom he had several children (1 Chron. vii, 14). See Machir. The only thing subsequently recorded of him personally is that his grandchildren were " brought up on Joseph's knees" (Gen. 1, 23). "The ancient Jewish traditions are, however, less reticent. According to them Jlanas- seh was the steward of Joseph's house, and the intcr- ]>reter who intervened between Joseph and his brethren at their interview ; and the extraordinary strength which he displayed in the struggle with and binding of Simeon first caused Judah to suspect that the apparent Egyptians were really his own flesh and blood (see Tar- gums Jerusalem and Pseudojon. on Gen. xiii, 23 ; xliii, 15; also the quotations in Weil's Bibl. Legeiuls, p. 88, note)" (Smith).
MANASSEH, Tribe of. — On the prophetic benedic- tion of Jacob, above referred to, although Manasseh, as the representative of his future lineage, had, like his grand-uncle Esau, lost his birthright in favor of his younger brother, he received, as Esau had, a blessing only inferior to the birthright itself. Like his brother, he was to increase with the fertility of the fish which swarmed in the great Egv'ptian stream, to " become a people, and also to be great" — the " thousands of Manas-
MANASSEH
690
IMANASSEH
seh," no less than those of Ephraim, indeed raor°, were to become a proverb in the nation ; his name, no less than that of Ephraim, was to be the s3'mbol and the ex- pression of the richest blessings for liis kindred.
The position of the tribe of Manasseh durinj^ the marcli to Canaan was with Ephraim and Benjamin on the west side of the sacred tent. The standard of the three sons of Rachel was the figure of a boy, with the inscription " The cloud of Jehovah rested on them un- til they went forth out of the camp" (Targ. Pseudojon. on Numb, ii, 18). Tlie chief of the tribe at the time of the census at Sinai was Gamaliel ben-Pedahzur, and its numbers were then 32,200 (Numb, i, 10,35; ii, 20, 21; vii, 5i-59). The numbers of Ephraim were at the same date •iO,.500. Forty years later, on the banks of the Jor- dan, these proportions were reversed. Manasseh had then increased to 52,700, while Ephraim had diminished to 32,500 (Numb, xxvi, 34, 37). On this occasion it is remarkable that Manasseh resumes his position in the catalogue as the eldest son of Joseph. Possibly this is due to the prowess which the tribe had shown in the conquest of Gilead, for Manasseh was certainly at this time the most distinguished of all the tribes. Of the three who had elected to remain on that side of the Jor- dan, Reuben and Gad had chosen their lot because the country was suitable to their pastoral possessions and tendencies. But Machir, Jair, and Nobah, the sons of Manasseh, were no shepherds. They were pure war- riors, who had taken the most prominent part in the conquest of those provinces which up to that time had been conquered, and whose deeds are constantly referred to (Numb, xxxii, 39 ; Deut. iii, 13, 14, 15) with credit and renown. " Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the tract of Argob . . . sixty great cities" (Deut. iii, 14, 4). " Nobah took Kenath and the daughter-towns thereof, and called it after his own name" (Numb, xxxii, 42). " Bacause Machir was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan" (Josh, xvii, 1). The district which these ancient warriors conquered was among the most difficult, if not the most difficult, in the whole country'. It embraced the hills of Gilead, with their inaccessible heights and impassable ravines, and the almost impreg-