므낫세는 요셉의 장자요, 이집트에서 애굽 여인에게서 태어난 자라 그 이름의 뜻이 "잊게 함"이니, 이는 요셉이 하나님으로 그로 말미암아 그 아버지의 집과 그 수고를 다 잊게 하셨다 한 까지다. 그와 그의 아우 에브라임은 후에 그들의 조부 야곱(이스라엘)에게 양자로 입양되어 요셉의 친아우들과 동등한 지위를 받았고, 이스라엘의 열두 지파 중 한 지파의 조상이 되었다.
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The story of Manasseh begins in the household that Joseph built in Egypt. After years of being sold by his brothers and enduring slavery and imprisonment, Joseph had been exalted by Pharaoh because God was with him. His wife Asenath bore him two sons, the firstborn being Manasseh. Joseph named the child "Manasseh," meaning "causing to forget," because he had experienced God's grace that made him forget his former toil and the pain of being separated from his father's house. The name itself is a confession of faith, testifying that God's providence can reverse the deepest sorrows of life. Years later, on his deathbed, Jacob adopted Joseph's two sons as his own, granting Manasseh and Ephraim equal standing with Reuben and Simeon. Although born in the foreign land of Egypt, Manasseh was thus formally brought into the covenant family of Israel, inheriting the promises made to the patriarchs. When Jacob blessed them, he deliberately placed his right hand on the younger Ephraim rather than the firstborn Manasseh, foreshadowing God's sovereign choice that overrides human convention. The blessing Jacob pronounced that day became a standard by which later generations of Israelites blessed their children: "God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh." The tribe descended from Manasseh later received its inheritance in the land of Canaan and became one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Old Testament also speaks of a king of Judah named Manasseh, who became notorious for doing evil in the sight of the Lord. He introduced Baal worship, erected Asherah in the Temple, practiced sorcery, divination, and necromancy, and shed innocent blood in Jerusalem; his sins are recorded as a primary reason for Judah's eventual exile and judgment.