Short answer: The Bible does not name Manasseh's wife, and 2 Kings 21:1–18 gives no details about her. The passage names his mother, Hephzibah, in the standard opening formula for a Judean king, and it names his son Amon as his successor at the end. Between those two notices the text is concerned with Manasseh's reign, not his household: he rebuilt the high places, set an Asherah image in Yahweh's house, practiced sorcery, and shed innocent blood, and Yahweh announced judgment on Jerusalem and Judah through the prophets.
A verdict written over fifty-five years
Second Kings 21 opens with a formula a reader has seen many times: an age, a length of reign, a mother's name, then a verdict. Manasseh was twelve when he began to reign and reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem (21:1). The previous chapter closed with Hezekiah's death and Manasseh's accession (20:21), so the reader arrives expecting another account of reform. The text gives the reverse. The shape here is a covenant lawsuit more than a biography: a summary charge in 21:2, a catalogue of specific offenses in 21:3–9, a prophetic oracle of judgment in 21:10–15, and a closing note about innocent blood in 21:16. The reign is measured against the law of Moses and the house of David, not against royal fashion.
The catalogue is concrete. Manasseh rebuilt the high places his father had destroyed, raised altars for Baal, made an Asherah, and worshiped the army of the sky (21:3). He put altars inside Yahweh's house and in its two courts (21:4–5), made his son pass through the fire, practiced sorcery and consulted mediums (21:6), and set the carved Asherah image in the temple (21:7). Verses 7 and 8 quote Yahweh's promise to David and Solomon about placing his name in Jerusalem and not letting Israel wander, so the sin is weighed against covenant obligation. The verdict is stark: Manasseh seduced Judah into evil beyond the nations Yahweh had driven out (21:9).
The oracle in 21:11–15 explains what later chapters will narrate. Because Manasseh exceeded the Amorites and led Judah into idolatry, Yahweh says he will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab's house, wipe the city like a dish turned upside down, and give the remnant into enemy hands (21:12–14). Verse 16 adds blood: Manasseh filled Jerusalem from one end to another with innocent blood. The closing notice records his death and burial in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son reigning in his place (21:18). The dynasty continues under the same verdict. The chapter says nothing about Manasseh's wife, and that silence should be left intact.
What the text says about manasseh and the silence around his wife
The account opens the way Judah's royal records routinely do: Manasseh was twelve when he began to reign, he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephzibah (2 Kings 21:1). That pattern repeats for king after king, naming the mother but never the wife. The silence is not a gap in the story that we are meant to fill. If you are asking who Manasseh's wife was, this passage does not say, and neither does the rest of the account here. What the text does give is a verdict, stated plainly and then spelled out in concrete acts rather than left as a general impression (2 Kings 21:2–6).
The standard formula is that he did evil in Yahweh's sight, and the chapter fills that formula with specifics. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed, the local worship sites that had been tolerated or used for false worship. He raised altars for Baal, made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, meaning the heavenly bodies treated as deities. He built altars inside Yahweh's house and in its two courts, made his son pass through the fire, and consulted sorcerers and those who dealt with familiar spirits (2 Kings 21:3–6). The report is not vague about what went wrong.
When Yahweh speaks through the prophets, the judgment is pictured in ordinary, vivid images. The measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab's house are builder's tools turned to a different purpose, marking a house for demolition. Jerusalem will be wiped like a dish wiped and turned upside down (2 Kings 21:13). The chapter also records that Manasseh shed innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem from one end to another (2 Kings 21:16). Read honestly, this is a description of covenant unfaithfulness and its consequences, not a promise that every later sorrow can be undone.
What the passage says about manasseh's household and his reign
The opening formula tells us what the text considers worth recording: Manasseh was twelve when he began to reign, he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephzibah (2 Kings 21:1). His mother is named. His wife is not. When the account closes, it names his son Amon as the one who reigned in his place (2 Kings 21:18). Scripture gives no name for the queen consort here or anywhere else, so the honest answer to the question is that the Bible does not say. Filling that gap with tradition or guesswork would add to the text rather than explain it.
The chapter arrives right after Hezekiah's death and the notice about his pool and conduit, so a reader expects a comparison with his reforms. What follows is the reversal. Manasseh rebuilt the high places his father destroyed, raised altars for Baal, made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, matching and exceeding Ahab of Israel (2 Kings 21:3). He set the Asherah image inside the house where Yahweh had pledged to put his name forever (2 Kings 21:7). Verses 7 and 8 recall that covenant promise, so the sin is measured against obligation, not against fashion.
The verdict is presented as settled. Yahweh speaks through the prophets: because Manasseh led Judah into idolatry worse than the Amorites, judgment will come on Jerusalem and Judah, measured with the line of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab's house, and the remnant will be given into enemy hands (2 Kings 21:11–14). Verse 16 adds that he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. The dynasty continues through Amon, who repeats his father's evil, but the chapter's closing notices sit under that same announced judgment, not outside it.
What the text says and leaves unsaid about manasseh
Readers often ask who Manasseh married, and this passage gives no answer. It names his mother, Hephzibah, and his son Amon, who reigned after him, but it never names a wife, tribe, or family for her. A son implies a mother, yet the text does not supply her identity, and no other canonical passage fills the gap. Traditions outside Scripture may offer guesses, but they are not part of the record here. What the chapter does say is that Manasseh was twelve when he began to reign and reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and that he did evil in Yahweh's sight, rebuilding the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed and raising altars for Baal (2 Kings 21:1–3).
Careful readers also differ over how to hold this chapter together with the account in 2 Chronicles 33, which reports Manasseh's later repentance and restoration. Some read the two as complementary perspectives on a long reign, while others stress that Kings gives the covenant evaluation and leaves the verdict unrelieved. The text here does not soften its assessment: Manasseh set an engraved image of Asherah in the house where Yahweh had put his name, made his son pass through the fire, and practiced sorcery (2 Kings 21:6–7). The chapter's burden is his sin and the judgment announced through the prophets, not a promise that later repentance removes every consequence.
The judgment announced here is severe and broad. Yahweh says he will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab's house, wipe Jerusalem as a dish is wiped and turned upside down, and cast off the remnant of his inheritance (2 Kings 21:13–14). The reason given reaches back to the exodus, because the people provoked him since the day their fathers came out of Egypt (2 Kings 21:15). Readers differ over how directly this applies to later generations, but what stays central is that the text names Hephzibah as mother and Amon as son, withholds the wife's name, and presents Manasseh's sin and Yahweh's announced judgment as the chapter's weight.
A defiled house and the Son of David who cleanses it
Second Kings 21:1–18 names Manasseh's mother, Hephzibah, and no wife appears anywhere in the account. The silence is worth noticing rather than filling. The chapter gives its space to what Manasseh built and did: he rebuilt the high places his father had torn down, raised altars to Baal, set an Asherah image inside the temple, and put altars to the host of heaven in both courts. Verse 7 recalls God's promise to David and Solomon to set his name in that house forever. The tragedy is that a king of David's line is the one defiling the house where the name was meant to dwell.
The judgment that follows is measured and severe. God says he will stretch over Jerusalem the line used against Samaria and the plummet used against Ahab's house, then wipe the city like a dish wiped and turned upside down (21:13). The remnant is cast off and given to enemies. Verse 16 adds that Manasseh filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. The passage does not promise that later repentance cancels such consequences; it shows a king whose sin shaped a whole nation. Read honestly, it raises the question the rest of the Bible must answer: how can God's promise to David survive a son like this?
The gospel answers by contrast and fulfillment. Jesus, the promised son of David, did not repeat Manasseh's pattern. He bore the judgment that idolatry and bloodshed deserved, and he cleanses the house of God that Manasseh defiled. The wiping of the dish and the casting off of the remnant are not the canon's last word, since the prophets later speak of restoration, and the New Testament identifies Jesus as the one in whom God's name dwells among his people. The wife question stays unanswered here; the chapter's weight falls on the king who ruined the house and the greater King who restores it.
What manasseh's story asks of us
Readers looking for Manasseh's wife will not find her here. The text names his mother, Hephzibah, and it names the length of his reign, but it gives no wife and no household detail beyond that. That silence is worth respecting rather than filling in. What the chapter actually asks us to weigh is a long life set against a covenant standard: fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and a verdict of evil. Length of days is not the measure God uses. The question the passage presses is not who surrounded this king but whether the worship of a household is guarded or handed over.
Influence runs through this account as a serious matter. Manasseh rebuilt what his father had torn down, set altars inside Yahweh's house, and led Judah to do worse than the nations already removed from the land (2 Kings 21:9). The prophets then spoke of judgment that would make ears tingle and of Jerusalem wiped like a dish turned upside down. Influence over the worship of others is never a private matter before God. Whatever repentance Scripture later reports of this king, the consequences announced here still came, so no one should read this chapter as a bargain in which sorrow now cancels outcomes later.
What remains for us is plain and ordinary: forsake idolatry, guard the worship of your own household, and trust God's patience while it lasts. The hope in this chapter is not ease or safety but the God who kept his word to David through the worst of kings. That grace comes first, and obedience grows from it rather than earning it. So examine what your home actually treats as ultimate, teach the children in your care to worship the Lord, and let the length of a life be measured by faithfulness rather than years.
Biblical fidelity check
The chapter opens with the standard regnal formula: age at accession, length of reign, and the mother's name. Hephzibah is named; a wife is not. That pattern matters for the question readers bring. A son, Amon, implies a mother, but 2 Kings 21:1–18 supplies no name, tribe, or family for Manasseh's wife, and no other passage fills the gap. Traditions outside Scripture exist but carry no canonical weight. Reading the verdict formula "did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight" as a summary filled in by concrete acts, including high places and the army of the sky, keeps attention on what the text actually reports.
The real limit is silence about the wife, and the honest answer is that Scripture does not say. A second disagreement concerns 2 Chronicles 33, which reports Manasseh's later repentance and restoration alongside this chapter's unrelieved verdict; some read the accounts as complementary perspectives on a long reign, others stress Kings as the covenant evaluation. Readers also differ on how directly the judgment announced here reaches later generations. What stays central is that the text names Hephzibah as mother and Amon as son, withholds the wife's name, and carries Manasseh's sin and Yahweh's announced judgment as its burden.
Studies that take up 2 Kings 21:1-18 from another angle
For further study, compare Hezekiah's reforms in 2 Kings 18: Hezekiah's Trust and Assyria's Threat with the reversal described here, and read the parallel account of Manasseh in 2 Kings 19: Hezekiah's Prayer and Assyria's Fall. Then trace the judgment announced in this chapter as it works out in 2 Kings 20: Hezekiah's Healing, Pride, and Babylon's Envoys, and weigh the warnings about leaders who lead others into sin in 2 Kings 1: Ahaziah's Fall and Elijah's Fire.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Manasseh's wife, and why does the Bible not name her?
Scripture never gives the name of Manasseh's wife, so no answer can be drawn from the text. Kings records the queen mother's name in its opening formula for each king, as it does with Hephzibah in 2 Kings 21:1, but it does not record the wife. The silence is genuine, and later tradition or speculation should not be treated as Scripture. What the chapter does say about Manasseh's household is limited to his mother and his son Amon, who reigned after him.
Why does 2 Kings name Manasseh's mother Hephzibah but not his wife?
The name Hephzibah appears because the book of Kings follows a set pattern when introducing a king of Judah, and that pattern includes the king's age, the length of his reign, the capital, and the name of his mother. The queen mother held a recognized public role in the Judean court, which is why her name is preserved. No comparable formula exists for the wife, so the text simply passes over her. The mention of Hephzibah is a matter of the book's reporting convention, not a comment on Manasseh's marriage.
How does Manasseh's reign in 2 Kings 21 relate to the account of his repentance in 2 Chronicles 33?
2 Kings 21 gives no account of Manasseh repenting; it describes his idolatry, his bloodshed, and the judgment Yahweh announced through the prophets. The book of Chronicles, written later, adds that Manasseh was carried to Babylon and humbled himself before God, and that God restored him to Jerusalem. The two accounts are not in conflict: Kings reports the verdict that fell on Judah because of the reign, while Chronicles reports an act of divine mercy toward the king himself. Neither account suggests that personal repentance erased the consequences that later came on the nation.
