The standard formula to introduce a king of Judah or Israel includes the following information here about Manasseh: his age at the time he came to power, the length of his reign, his capital, and his mother’s name (compare 1 Kgs 14.21; 2 Kgs 8.26).

He reigned fifty-five years: When the dates for the kings who ruled before and after Manasseh are calculated, it is difficult to explain the number fifty-five. The number “forty-five” seems to fit better. One way to solve the chronological problem is to assume that the first ten years of the young King Manasseh’s rule overlapped with the reign of his father Hezekiah. The dates given in different translations for Manasseh’s rule vary considerably because of this problem. The section heading in Peregrino, for example, gives the dates 698–643 B.C. New Jerusalem Bible, however, gives the dates 687–642 B.C. All interpreters, however, are agreed that the text says fifty-five years, and this is what must be translated in the receptor language.

The text mentions only the name of Hephzibah, the mother of Manasseh, but nothing is said of her father (Manasseh’s grandfather) or her place of origin. She is the only one of the specifically named queen mothers for whom no such information is given, and she is not mentioned at all in the parallel passage in 2 Chr 33.1.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .