Read as/With the Perpetrator: Manasseh’s Vulnerability in 2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20

This essay explores Manasseh’s vulnerability in both narratives in terms of the current reader’s own vulnerability. In 2 Kings 21:1-18 Manasseh appears to remain invulnerable over-against the inhabitants of Jerusalem’s vulnerability. In 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 Manasseh is turned fragile in captivity and physically rendered vulnerable. The essay is divided into three sections. It starts with a theoretical basis for the argument of vulnerability, following Levinas’ ethical moment, discussing the notion of vulnerability as a negative state, and constructing vulnerability as possibility on the basis of Erinn Gilson’s book, The Ethics of Vulnerability. A Feminist Analysis of Social Life and Practice. In the second part Manasseh’s story in 2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 is analyzed and in the last part the author connects the notion of vulnerability to these two stories.