X2M.198 — מְנַשֶּׁה (Manasseh): Forgetting Toil, Becoming One
Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh: “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house” (Gen. 41:51). Forgetting here is not erasure but reset — a covenantal forgetting that loosens the grip of toil, resentment, and generational sorrow.
Psalm 39 laments life’s brevity and futility, yet concludes in hope: “My hope is in You” (Ps. 39:7)¹. In this balance of forgetting and remembering, Manasseh becomes the sign that toil is not the final word. The curse of Adam’s sweat is lifted; true work is trust in God’s provision.
But Manasseh also signals something larger: the formation of a people. Ephraim, Joseph’s second son, means “double fruitfulness.” Jacob crossed his hands, blessing Ephraim before Manasseh, yet both together carry covenant identity. Forgetting toil (Manasseh) makes space for fruitfulness (Ephraim). Out of many, one — e pluribus unum.
For this reason, interpreters across history have seen the United States as a Manasseh nation: born from many into one, carrying Joseph’s blessing into a new world². The name Manasseh, “to forget,” fits the immigrant story — leaving behind old countries, old burdens, and old toils in hope of new promise. Jacob’s prophecy also speaks directly to this: Manasseh would become “a great people” while Ephraim would surpass him as “a multitude of nations” (Gen. 48:19)³. Many read in this a foreshadowing of the U.S. as Manasseh and Britain as Ephraim, together forming Joseph’s double portion.
Manasseh, then, is both personal and national. Personally, it is the gift of forgetting toil and living in Spirit-born rest. Nationally, it is the charter of a people called to unity in covenant fruitfulness. The firmware clause is clear: true greatness flows not from labor without end, but from forgetting toil in order to remember God.
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¹ Ps. 39:1–13.
² For example, 19th–20th century interpreters in the British-Israel and Anglo-American traditions often identified the U.S. with Manasseh, reading Joseph’s blessings in Genesis 48–49 as foreshadowing a people gathered from many nations into one. See Steven M. Collins, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel…Found! (1995), 201–220.
³ Gen. 48:19 — Jacob’s blessing: “He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.”
