abylon,
and thy posterity shall be made eunuchs there, and lose their manhood,
and be servants to the king of Babylon; for that God foretold such
things would come to pass." Upon which words Hezekiah was troubled, and
said that he was himself unwilling that his nation should fall into
such calamities; yet since it is not possible to alter what God had
determined, he prayed that there might be peace while he lived. Berosus
also makes mention of this Baladan, king of Babylon. Now as to this
prophet [Isaiah], he was by the confession of all, a divine and
wonderful man in speaking truth; and out of the assurance that he had
never written what was false, he wrote down all his prophecies, and left
them behind him in books, that their accomplishment might be judged of
from the events by posterity: nor did this prophet do so alone, but the
others, which were twelve in number, did the same. And whatsoever is
done among us, Whether it be good, or whether it be bad, comes to pass
according to their prophecies; but of every one of these we shall speak
hereafter.

CHAPTER 3. How Manasseh Reigned After Hezekiah; And How When He Was In
Captivity He Returned To God And Was Restored To His Kingdom And Left It
To [His Son] Amon.

1. When king Hezekiah had survived the interval of time already
mentioned, and had dwelt all that time in peace, he died, having
completed fifty-four years of his life, and reigned twenty-nine. But
when his son Manasseh, whose mother's name was Hephzibah, of Jerusalem,
had taken the kingdom, he departed from the conduct of his father, and
fell into a course of life quite contrary thereto, and showed himself in
his manners most wicked in all respects, and omitted no sort of impiety,
but imitated those transgressions of the Israelites, by the commission
of which against God they had been destroyed; for he was so hardy as to
defile the temple of God, and the city, and the whole country; for,
by setting out from a contempt of God, he barbarously slew all the
righteous men that were among the Hebrews; nor would he spare the
prophets, for he every day slew some of them, till Jerusalem was
overflown with blood. So God was angry at these proceedings, and sent
prophets to the king, and to the multitude, by whom he threatened the
very same calamities to them which their brethren the Israelites, upon
the like affronts offered to God, were now under. But these men would
not believe their words, by which belief the