Dominic Rudman, «A Note on the Personal Name Amon (2 Kings 21,19-26 || 2 Chr 33,21-25)», Vol. 81 (2000) 403-405

Manasseh’s son Amon (Heb. Nwm)) has what appears to be an Egyptian name. This article argues that Manasseh, who fought alongside Ashurbanipal on his first campaign in Egypt in 667 BCE, named the son born to him during Ashurbanipal’s second campaign in 663 BCE as a flattering commemoration of his overlord’s capture of the rebel capital Thebes (Heb. Nwm) )n) in that year.

little choice in the matter given that he inherited a state comprised of little more than Jerusalem and its immediate environs⁶. The survival of Judah in any form depended on the good behaviour of its king, and Manasseh seems to have managed to recover much of the territory lost to Judah following Hezekiah’s ill-fated rebellion⁷. Manasseh’s loyalty to Assyria is demonstrated well enough in the Assyrian annals of Esarhaddon (681-668 BCE) which state that Manasseh and 21 other kings of Hatti (Syria-Palestine) were forced to provide building materials for Esarhaddon’s new palace and transport them to Nineveh (ANET 291). Manasseh also accompanied Esarhaddon’s successor on his first campaign against Tirhakah in Egypt in 667 BCE. The annals of Ashurbanipal state that ‘During my march (to Egypt), 22 kings from the seashore, the islands and the mainland, servants who belong to me, brought heavy gifts (tâmartu) to me and kissed my feet. I made these kings accompany my army over the land-as well as (over) the sea-route with their armed forces...’ (ANET 294). The names of these 22 kings are listed in Cylinder C, and among them is ‘Manasseh (Mi-in-si-e), King of Judah (Ia-ú-di)’.

        Despite the success of this campaign, Assyria’s hold over Egypt was challenged again three years later by Tirhakah’s son Tanwetamani (664-656 BCE), who captured Memphis. The response of Assyria was swift and brutal. In 663 BCE, Ashurbanipal attacked Egypt and took Tanwetamani’s capital, Thebes (Egyptian: Ni); Hebrew: Nwom)f )On⁸. The Assyrian annals make no mention this time of aid from vassal states; rather they stress the speed with which the Assyrian king reacted to the new insurrection (‘URdamane heard of the approach of my expedition [only when] I had [already] set foot on Egyptian territory’ [ANET 295]) — probably there was no time for a ceremonial progression through Syria-Palestine, although it is entirely likely that Assyria’s vassals (including Judah?) on the route of Ashurbanipal’s march were called on to render military aid once more. The fall of Thebes to Ashurbanipal in 663 BCE at any rate seems to have impressed Judahite contemporaries: Nah 3,8-10 preserves the memory of this event, predicting that one day Nineveh itself would fall as did Thebes.

        Even if Manasseh himself was not fighting with his Assyrian overlord against a city called Nwm) )n in 663 BCE, the fact that he chose to call the son born to him in this year Nwm)f suggests a relationship between these events. For