“He will do all his pleasures; he will illtreat the Well-Beloved, and will say to him, Lo! I am God, and before me there is none other. “And all the world will believe in him. “And sacrifice will be offered to him, and a worship of adoration, saying, He alone is God, and there is none other. “Then the greater number of those gathered together to receive the Well-Beloved will turn aside to Berial; “Who by his power will work miracles in the cities and in the country; “And everywhere shall a table be spread for him. “His domination shall be for three years seven months and twenty-seven days.”[690] Only when Hezekiah was at the point of death, did Isaiah reveal to him what and how great would be the iniquities of his son. Then the king would have slain Manasseh: “I had rather,” said he, “die without posterity, than leave behind me a son who should persecute the saints.” When the prophet saw that Hezekiah loved God more than his own son, he was glad, and he restrained the king, and said, “It is the will of God that he should live.” Manasseh reigned in the room of his father, and was a cruel tyrant. He worshipped idols, and sought to make Isaiah partake in his idolatry. And when he could not succeed, he sawed him asunder with a saw of wood. “And whilst Isaiah was being cut asunder, Melekira stood up and accused him, and all the lying prophets were present, and they showed great joy, and they mocked him. “And Belial said to Isaiah: ‘Confess that all thou hast said is false, and that the ways of Manasseh are good and just. “‘Confess that the ways of Melekira, and of those that are with him, are good.’ “He spake thus to him, as the saw entered into his flesh. “But Isaiah was in an ecstasy, and his eyes were open, and he looked upon the spectators of his passion. “Then said Melekira to Isaiah: ‘Confess what I shall say, and I will change the heart of those who persecute thee, and I will make Manasseh, and the heads of Judah, and his people, and all Jerusalem, worship thee.’ “Then Isaiah answered and said: ‘Cursed art thou in all that thou sayest, and in all thy power, and in all thy disciples!’ “‘Thou canst do nothing against me; all thou canst do is to take from me this miserable life.’ “Then they seized the prophet, and they sawed him with a saw of wood, Isaiah, son of Amos. “And Manasseh and Melekira, and the lying prophets, and the princes of Israel, and all the people, beheld his execution. “Now, before that the execution was accomplished, he said to the prophets who had followed him: ‘Fly to Tyre and Sidon, for the Lord hath given the cup to me alone.’ “And whilst the saw cut into his flesh, Isaiah uttered no complaint and shed no tears; but he ceased not to commune with the Holy Spirit till the saw had cloven him to the middle of his body.”[691]