1
And it came to pass after Chizqiyahu died and Menasheh became king that he did not remember the commands of Chizqiyahu his father, but forgot them; and Samma'el remained in Menasheh and clung to him.
2
And Menasheh abandoned the service of the Elohim of his father, and served Satan and his messengers and his powers.
3
And he turned the house of his father away from the words of wisdom and from the service of Elohim which had stood before the face of Chizqiyahu.
4
And Menasheh turned his heart to serve Beliar; for Beliar is the messenger of lawlessness, the ruler of this world, whose name is Mantanbukhos. And he delighted in Yerushalayim because of Menasheh, strengthening him in the apostasy of Yisra'el and in the lawlessness spread through Yerushalayim.
5
And sorcery and magic increased, together with divination, omens, sexual immorality, adultery, and the persecution of the righteous through Menasheh, Belkhira, Tobiyah the Kena'ani, Yochanan of Anatot, and the chief of the works.
6
And the rest of these deeds - see, they are written in the sefer of the kings of Yehudah and Yisra'el.
7
And when Yeshayahu son of Amotz saw the lawlessness being committed in Yerushalayim, and the worship of Satan and his excess, he withdrew from Yerushalayim and settled in Beit-Lechem of Yehudah.
8
And there also lawlessness was great; therefore he withdrew from Beit-Lechem and settled upon a mountain in a wilderness place.
9
And Mikhah the prophet, Chananyah the elder, Yo'el, Chavaqquq, Yosab his son, and many of the faithful who trusted concerning the ascension into the heavens withdrew and settled upon the mountain.
10
They were all clothed in garments of hair and were all prophets. They possessed nothing, but lived stripped of possessions, and they lamented with a great lamentation because of the wandering of Yisra'el.
11
And they ate nothing except wild herbs which they gathered upon the mountains; and after cooking them they lived upon them together with Yeshayahu the prophet. And they remained two years of days upon the mountains and hills.
12
After this, while they were in the wilderness, there was a certain ish in Shomeron named Belkhira, from the family of Tzidqiyahu son of Kena'an, a false prophet whose dwelling was in Beit-Lechem.
13
Now Chizqiyahu son of Chanani, the brother of his father, had in the days of Ach'av king of Yisra'el been teacher of the four hundred prophets of Ba'al, and had struck and reproved Mikhah son of Imlah the prophet. Mikhah had been reproved by Ach'av and cast into prison; and Tzidqiyahu the false prophet was with Achazyahu son of Ach'av, king in Shomeron.
14
And Eliyahu the prophet from Gil'ad reproved Achazyahu and Shomeron, and prophesied concerning Achazyahu that he would die upon his bed of sickness and that Shomeron would be handed over, because he had slain the prophets of Elohim.
15
And when the false prophets who were with Achazyahu son of Ach'av and their teacher heard these things -
16
they persuaded Achazyahu the king and acted against Mikhah.