"Hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom!  Give ear to the teaching
of our God, you people of Gomorrah!  What to me is the multitude of your
sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs,
or of he-goats."  1: 10-11.

"You have not... satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have
burdened me with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities."
43: 24.
 

      Isaias Accepts The Covenant with All Flesh in Genesis 1: 29-30.

    Isaias' views above are precisely those of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch,
in which Deity comes to convict all flesh.  The notion of convicting all flesh also exists in the Old Testament, but it is  ambiguously expressed, merely
saying that all flesh has corrupted the earth and committed violence on the
earth.  Isaias refers directly to the very first chapter of the Ethiopic Book of
Enoch in Chapter 40, which is also quoted by Jesus when he refers to
John the Baptist.

"A voice cries: `In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted
up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall
become level, and the rough places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. (emphasis mine)'"  40: 3-5.

   So Isaias sees the glory of the Lord to be revealed to "all flesh."  In the
Ethiopic Book of Enoch, we have the following scriptures, from which
the scriptures of Isaias are obviously derived:

"And the high mountains shall be shaken,
And the high hills shall be made low..." 1: 6

"And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones
To execute judgment upon all,
And to destroy all the ungodly:
And to convict all flesh
Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed,
And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against
Him." 1: 9 [R. H. Charles edition]

   Isaias obviously accepts Genesis 1: 30 as a valid covenant for the
creatures of the earth:

" And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life,
I have given every green plant for food.'" l: 29-30.   (emphasis mine).

   Many readers tend to overlook the significance of 1: 30, namely that the scripture bluntly states that  God is making a covenant with all creatures and not simply with humans. Covenants are not made with beings unless they have sentience and free will. Therefore, one understands the reason why orthodoxies overlook this covenant.  It shows that the original Jews regarded animals in the same manner as the vegetarian Hindus, who regarded animal incarnations as simply a specific manifestation necessary for the progress of the immortal spirit within the animal.  It shows also that the Deluge was meant to wipe away all creatures who had broken the covenant, and like humans, had spilled the blood of other creatures.
 
 

"He who slaughters an ox is like him who kills a man."  66:3.

    Contrast the above scripture with Paul's "Is it for oxen that God is
concerned?" 9: 9, Romans. The truthful Isaias would have answered Yes.
And had Paul truly accepted the Old Testament as he claimed he did, as a
Jew, he would have seen that his refusal to acknowledge the sacredness
of the ox was sacrilegious.  Paul's hardness of heart typifies the hardness
of heart towards the animals of creation that exists in the orthodoxies of
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
 

"...even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are
full of blood.  Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of
your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek
justice, correct oppression...  l: l5-17.
 

   The book of Isaiah prophesied that in the final times, as in the
beginning, all animal creation would be at peace:

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall
lead them.  The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down
together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  The sucking child shall
play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on
the adder's den.  They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy  mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea."  ll: 6-9.

   The reference to the holy mountain is significant to those who
understand the Hindu origins of Judaism, for the original Jews were
Sabeans worshipping Shiva who lived on Mt. Kailessa, and who preferred
to live in the mountains and wilderness, rather than the cities.
 

"Man is bowed down, and men are brought low, and the eyes of the
haughty are humbled.  But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the
Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.  Then shall the lambs
graze as in their pasture, fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins."  5:
l5-l7.

   The Book of Enoch makes it clear that there is to be no elitism on earth, that all humans are to be seen as equal, and that those who try to be kings, or those who are mighty, for example, the presidents and prime ministers of our day, the governments of the world, all of whom we know are supported by the rich and mighty, by the corporations, are all evil, by the very fact that they create resentment-breeding societies of rich and poor.

"3 When the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed and the sinners
judged, And the godless driven from the presence of the righteous and
elect,
4 From that time those that possess the earth shall no longer be powerful
and exalted: And they shall not be able to behold the face of the holy,
For the Lord of Spirits has caused His light to appear On the face of the
holy, righteous, and elect.
5 Then shall the kings and the mighty perish
And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy."
From Chapter 38 of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, the R. H. Charles edition.

    It should be obvious to the reader who has read the other pages of this
site that the scriptures of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch were a part of the
tradition of the pure remnant of Judaism, and that the Book was deemed
to be apocryphal because it showed the lies being promoted in the Torah.
Also, the Book of Enoch clearly relates the Sabean Ethiopians with the
original Jews. This was recognized by numerous late prophets.

    Isaias' view of the final times is similar to the vision of the Hopis, some
of whose connections with the Hindus are described in the articles of the
web site Viewzone.com. Like the Hopi account of the creation in the
beginning, in isaias' vision all the animals live peacefully together.  None
are subdued or had dominion over, as advocated in the inserted
scriptures of Genesis 1: 26-28.

    Isaias did not see himself as an idealist, a utopian, or unrealistic.  His
vision is totally in keeping with the Vegetarian Covenant of Genesis 1:
29-30, which is the only valid dietary covenant that exists in the Old
Testament.  The covenant sanctioning carnivorism with the Noah is so
fraught with contradictions and sloppy scriptures that only a true believer
orthodox person in denial could possibly believe that covenant was valid.
For that covenant sanctioning carnivorism makes the God of the Torah
out to be ignorant of nutrition, and devoid of compassion.

   That God and God's creation, all God's creatures, were intimately
related, that the beings of creation could choose once again to be pure and loving, and that God had destined creation on earth in the future to be free of the karma of oppression--all these were part of isaias' consciousness, just as they are part of the Hindu, Buddhist, Hopi and Mayan tradition, as well as of indigenous traditions throughout the world which affirm that all creation is sacred.  The Hopi tradition, with its own chakra and meditation system, and its account of an original creation in which there was total peace for all creatures, sprang from a similar if not the identical matrix as that of the Hindus and Buddhists.
 

   Because isaias' scriptures were passionately vegetarian, they were
excised of their vegetarian emphases by the Roman Catholic
compilers/revisers of the scriptures that finally made up the New Testament.  For example, Isaiah 7: 14 is highlighted as a prophecy foretelling Jesus' appearance. But notice that 7: 15 is purposely omitted by the compilers of the New Testament.  It doesn't fit the Pauline party line of carnivorism; instead it affirms that the coming one will be a lacto-vegetarian, which is the typical diet of mainstream Hindus and Buddhists, and the diet of most of the heresies named by Epiphanius.

"Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel.  He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to
refuse the evil and choose the good.  7: 14-15.

   For example, Isaiah 7: 14 is highlighted as a prophecy foretelling Jesus'
appearance.  But notice that 7: 15 is purposely omitted by the compilers
of the New Testament.  It doesn't fit the Pauline party line of carnivorism;
instead it affirms that the coming one will be a lacto-vegetarian, which is
the typical diet of mainstream Hindus and Buddhists.

"Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel.  7: 14.

"He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and
choose the good."  7: 15.

The same Chapter 7 ends with a vision of a place of freedom for the
animals, "where cattle are let loose and sheep tread."

    Frend, author of Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
admits that early Christians argued with Jews as to whether Isaiah
7: 14 or Leviticus 11 contained the correct dietary laws. Frend, like
other scholars of early Christianity, refuses to delineate on the fact
that Isaiah 7: 14 is lacto-vegetarian, whereas Leviticus 11 is
typically carnivorous.

   Though suppressing the vegetarianism of the early Christians, Frend does point out that some Christian martyrs were dressed like Ceres, goddess of grains, and Saturn, god of the cornucopia, both representatives of vegetation, before they were fed to the beasts.  No doubt because of pressure, many Christian scholars suppress the topics of vegetarianism versus carnivorism and egalitarianism versus elitism, though these are the two basic religious dramas all religious cultures are all faced with: how to relate to the other creatures of creation, and how to relate to our own human kind.
 

   The name Immanuel itself is a direct connection to the Hindu Manu and
Laws of Manu that existed among the Hindus as well as among the earliest

Jews.  Im means With in ancient Hebrew. Manu is the Hindu Noah and
Lawgiver, and El is God. So Immanuel the savior shall be a person in
conjunction with both Manu the human lawgiver, and El, God. The
scriptures are interpreted by Christians to refer to Jesus as a savior and
lawgiver as well.
 

"For in the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the
men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but
behold, bloodshed..."  5: 7.

   Over and over again plants are considered people's natural food, and
agriculture, planting, is emphasized as humanity's natural labor, not
raising animals for slaughter, milk and honey being the only two "animal
foods" acceptable to the later prophets.  The following passages
emphasizing tilling the soil are just a few of many scattered throughout
the Old Testament.

...does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley
in its proper place, and spelt as the border? For he is instructed aright; his
God teaches him.  28: 25-26.
 

  Reading the texts of Hinduism and Buddhism, one discovers that it was
known from time immemorial that the "flesh of slain beasts was harmful to humans and that the moral discernment of humans became progressively distorted by eating the slain carcasses of creatures.  Though this knowledge has been suppressed in mainstream Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures because of their adherence to carnivorism, our society's growing understanding of the harmful effects of animal fat makes isaias' reference to fat even more emphatic in its irony.

"Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their
eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."  6: 10.

"Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind!  Be
drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!  For the Lord
has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes,
the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.  And the vision of all this
has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.  When men
give it to one who can read, saying, 'Read this," he says, "I cannot, for it is
sealed.'" 29: 9-11.
 

   Similarly, the first clause in the following scripture is omitted in the New
Testament, except by John in "Revelations," yet the passage following it is well known as a prophecy of the messiah.  The imagery of white garments
symbolizing purity is used by other Old Testament prophets as will
because it is not just a reference to spiritual purity, but white clean
garments are literally a sharp contrast to the bloody garments of the
priests sacrificing animals, or to the butchers' garb. The prophecy clearly
tells of a vegetarian messiah to come.

"...and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.  For
to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be
upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Of the increase of his
government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David,
and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with
righteousness from this time forth and for evermore."  9: 5-7.
 

     The intrinsic evil of industry excavating land inhabited by living
creatures, cutting down trees, virtually all of which are havens for
insects, birds and other animals, or otherwise invading the air and water
of earth, the fact that the buildings, roads, and other structures of industry
are gravestones of vast numbers of creatures was seen by the prophets.
The Rechabites described by Jeremiah vowed to live in tents all their days
and vowed not even to invade the earth haven of other creatures through
cultivating the earth.

"May the descendants of evildoers nevermore be named! Prepare
slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise
and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities."  14: 20-21.

"Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of
ruins.  Her cities will be deserted for ever; they will be for flocks, which will
lie down, and none will make them afraid."  17: 1-3.

"For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and
the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of
flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high and the wilderness
becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.  Then
justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful
field.  And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of
righteousness, quietness and trust forever....Happy are you who sow
beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free."  32:
14-20.

   It was Canaan which was the original domicile of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and it is the language of Canaan, known as the land of "milk and
honey," and known for its agriculture and vintners, that Isaiah says will
exert a unifying influence over the Jews.  Now this prophecy makes even
more sense today, now that we understand that the Canaanites were
vegetarians worshiping Kannan, the Tamil Hindu name for Krishna.

"In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the
language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts."  19: 18.
 

...and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her, and will no more
cover her slain.  26: 27.
 

"In that day the lord God of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to
baldness and girding with sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness,
slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine.  "Let us eat
and drink, for tomorrow we die."  The Lord of hosts has revealed himself
in my ears:  Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die," says the Lord God of hosts."  22: 12-14.
 

"For they are a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will not hear the
instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, "See not"; and to the
prophets, "Prophesy not to us what is right; speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions..."  30:9-ll.

   For orthodox Jews in denial, animal sacrifices, male chauvinism, bigotry
towards homosexuals, and slavery are all acceptable practices, just as
they are for the orthodox Christian and Muslim.
 

The sword of Jehovah's justice will satisfy itself by sacrificing those who
have sacrificed animals:

"For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed.  The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams.  For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom...Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat.  34: 6-7.

    Cleansed of carnivorism the desert shall become fruitful, and the healing
that results from cleansing the world of animal sacrifices is a recurring theme.   Certain exegetes see passages referring to the dry land becoming watery as a direct reference to our own time, in which there is the large-scale desertification of the soil by cattle raised for slaughter who not only eat vast amounts of vegetation humans could consume, but use inordinate amounts of water that could be used more efficiently by humans and other animals.

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the
dumb sing for joy.  For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and
streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the
thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. And a highway shall
be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err therein.  No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it..."  35: 5-9.

    In a passage cited in the New Testament as a prophecy of John the
Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, it is clear that John and Jesus and the Essenes who influenced them were to continue the legacy of Isaiah and the other vegetarian prophets. They were to spread the purity of the vegetarian remnant of Israel, which involved a leveling of all hierarchies between human and human, and human and beast, and thereby establish peace, "salvation," for all flesh. "Every mountain and hill shall be made low" is once again a reference to the Book of Enoch.

"A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted
up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall
become level, and the rough places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."  40: 3-5.

     Paradise in Isaiah and in the "Book of Revelations" in the New
Testament is a place of glorious vegetation to be brought about partially
by inundations of water changing the topography of the earth.
Greenpeace and other explorations in our polar regions indicate polar ice
is melting at a faster rate than anticipated because of global warming.
Those who have read the Ethiopic Book of Enoch know that a number of
chapters are dedicated soley to describing trees, as one might expect of a
document propounding vegetarianism. Isaias does the same in the
following scriptures.

"I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the
valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land
springs of water.  I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together; that men may see and know, may consider and understand
together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel
has created it."  41: 18-20.
 

"They know not, nor do they discern; for he has shut their eyes, so that
they cannot see, and their minds, so that they cannot understand."
 

    Isaiah directly attacks the passover sacrifice, and (like Jeremiah)
connects it with the sin of Adam and Eve, as well as with the cannibalism
associated with Molech.  In isaias' compassionate mind, the killer of a
lamb is as one who kills a human.  The definition of harlotry is often broadened by the prophets to include such unfaithfulness to animal creation.  Killing an animal, splitting open its body, which is similar to their own animal bodies, Adam and Eve saw a type of themselves, innards exposed; their own existence with its physical frailty is out in the open, naked. To the original Jew, as to all genuine vegetarian cultures, the
killing of animals is as the killing of humans.

"Upon a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and thither you
went up to offer sacrifice.  Behind the door and the door post you have set
up your symbol; for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed...you
have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness.  You journeyed to
Molech..." 57: 7-9.
 

    Isaiah concludes with a vision of peace for all animal creation, and with
a reminder of, and a warning to, those who sacrificed and ate animals.
Isaias once again directly refers to the Book of Enoch, in which the Last
Judgement is described as taking place in a valley in which the
unrighteous exist suffering, and the righteous observe them from both
sides. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord; so shall your descendants and your name remain.  From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.  And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.  66: 22-24.

From Chapter 10 of the Book of Enoch:

 And again the Lord said to Raphael: 'Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast
him into the darkness: and make an opening 5 in the desert, which is in
Dudael, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged
rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and
cover his face that he may 6,7 not see light. And on the day of the great
judgment he shall be cast into the fire.

And the Lord said unto Michael: 'Go, bind Semjaza and his associates
who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled
themselves

12 with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one
another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind
them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of
their judgment and of their consummation, till the judgment that is 13
for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the
abyss of fire: and 14 to the torment and the prison in which they shall be
confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will
from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all 15
generations.

1 Then said I: 'For what object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled
with trees, and this 2 accursed valley between?' Then Uriel, one of the
holy angels who was with me, answered and said: 'This accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever: Here shall all the accursed be gathered together who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things. Here shall they be gathered together, and here 3 shall be their place of judgment. In the last days there shall be upon them the spectacle of righteous judgment in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the merciful bless the Lord
of glory, the Eternal King. 4 In the days of judgment over the former, they shall bless Him for the mercy in accordance with 5 which He has assigned them (their lot).' Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and set forth His glory and lauded Him gloriously.
 

   The reader is well aware that Isaias was vegetarian and saw the killing of
God's creatures as horrendous and bloody atrocities, sacrileges against not only the creatures themselves, but against the Creator of all life.  I will quote the entire apocryphal work, "The Martyrdom of Isaiah" because these passages further confirm what the later prophets, and in fact, what the earliest Jews believed, that the vegetarian covenant was in fact the only legitimate dietary covenant with God, and that the covenant with Noah after the Deluge was a hoax.  I recommend the web site at which readers may obtain for themselves other apocryphal works edited by
by R. H. Charles, works which now public domain.

   When Isaias and the other prophets retreat to the mountain top, clothe themselves in hairy garments and eat nothing but boiled herbs, they mimic the original deity of Judaism, Shiva, lord of austerities, vegetarian, who, like his followers in the account below, preferred the mountains and wilderness to the cities.
 

2 called Manasseh his son. Now he was his only one. And he called him into the presence of Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet; and into the presence of Josab the son of Isaiah.

6b, 7 And whilst he (Hezekiah) gave commands, Josab the son of Isaiah standing by, Isaiah said to Hezekiah the king, but not in the presence of Manasseh only did he say unto him: 'As the Lord liveth, whose name has not been sent into this world, [and as the Beloved of my Lord liveth], and as the Spirit which speaketh in me liveth, all these commands and these words shall be made of none effect by Manasseh thy son, and through the agency of his hands I shall depart mid the torture of

8 my body. And Sammael Malchira shall serve Manasseh, and execute all his desire, and he shall

9 become a follower of Beliar rather than of me. And many in Jerusalem and in Judaea he shall cause to abandon the true faith, and Beliar shall dwell in Manasseh, and by his hands I shall be

10 sawn asunder.' And when Hezekiah heard these words he wept very bitterly, and rent his garments,

11 and placed earth upon his head, and fell on his face. And Isaiah said
unto him: 'The counsel of

12 Sammael against Manasseh is consummated: nought shall avail thee.' And on that day Hezekiah

13 resolved in his heart to slay Manasseh his son. And Isaiah said to
Hezekiah: ['The Beloved hath made of none effect thy design, and] the
purpose of thy heart shall not be accomplished, for with this calling have I
been called [and I shall inherit the heritage of the Beloved].'
 

1 And it came to pass after that Hezekiah died and Manasseh became
king, that he did not remember the commands of Hezekiah his father but forgat them, and Sammael abode in Manasseh

2 and clung fast to him. And Manasseh forsook the service of the God of
his father, and he served

3 Satan and his angels and his powers. And he turned aside the house of
his father which had been

4 before the face of Hezekiah the words of wisdom and from the service of
God. And Manasseh turned aside his heart to serve Beliar; for the angel of
lawlessness, who is the ruler of this world, is Beliar, whose name is
Matanbuchus. And he delighted in Jerusalem because of Manasseh, and
he made him strong in apostatizing (Israel) and in the lawlessness which
was spread abroad in Jerusalem

5 And witchcraft and magic increased and divination and augulation, and
fornication, [and adultery], and the persecution of the righteous by
Manasseh and [Belachira, and] Tobia the Canaanite, and John

6 of Anathoth, and by (Zadok  the chief of the works. And the rest of the
acts, behold they are written

7 in the book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. And when Isaiah the son of
Amoz saw the lawlessness which was being perpetrated in Jerusalem
and the worship of Satan and his wantonness, he

8 withdrew from Jerusalem and settled in Bethlehem of Judah. And there
also there was much

9 lawlessness, and withdrawing from Bethlehem he settled on a mountain
in a desert place. [And Micaiah the prophet, and the aged Ananias, and
Joel and Habakkuk, and his son Josab, and many of the faithful who
believed in the ascension into heaven, withdrew and settled on the
mountain.]

10 They were all clothed with garments of hair, and they were all prophets.
And they had nothing with them but were naked, and they all lamented
with a great lamentation because of the going

11 astray of Israel. And these eat nothing save wild herbs which they
gathered on the mountains, and having cooked them, they lived thereon
together with Isaiah the prophet. And they spent two years of

12 days on the mountains and hills. [And after this, whilst they were in the
desert, there was a certain man in Samaria named Belchlra, of the family of
Zedekiah, the son of Chenaan, a false prophet whose dwelling was in
Bethlehem. Now Hezekiah the son of Chanani, who was the brother of his
father, and in the days of Ahab king of Israel had been the teacher of the
400 prophets of Baal,

13 had himself smitten and reproved Micaiah the son of Amada the
prophet. And he, Micaiah, had been reproved by Ahab and cast into
prison. (And he was) with Zedekiah the prophet: they were

14 with Ahaziah the son of Ahab, king in Samaria. And Elijah the prophet
of Tebon of Gilead was reproving Ahaziah and Samaria, and prophesied
regarding Ahaziah that he should die on his bed of sickness, and that
Samaria should be delivered into the hand of Leba Nasr because he had
slain

15 the prophets of God. And when the false prophets, who were with
Ahaziah the son of Ahab and

16 their teacher Gemarias of Mount Joel had heard -now he was brother of
Zedekiah -when they had heard, they persuaded Ahaziah the king of
Aguaron and slew Micaiah.
 

1 And Belchlra recognized and saw the place of Isaiah and the prophets
who were with him; for he dwelt in the region of Bethlehem, and was an
adherent of Manasseh. And he prophesied falsely in Jerusalem, and many
belonging to Jerusalem were confederate with him, and he was a
Samaritan.

2 And it came to pass when Alagar Zagar, king of Assyria, had come and
captured Samaria and taken the nine (and a half) tribes captive, and led
them away to the mountains of the Medes and the

3 rivers of Tazon; this (Belchira) while still a youth, had escaped and
come to Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, but he walked not in the ways of his father of Samaria; for he feared 4 Hezekiah. And he was found in the days of Hezekiah speaking words of lawlessness in Jerusalem.

5 And the servants of Hezekiah accused him, and he made his escape to
the region of Bethlehem.

6 And they persuaded . . . And Belchlra accused Isaiah and the prophets
who were with him, saying: 'Isaiah and those who are with him prophesy
against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that they shall be laid
waste and (against the children of Judah and) Benjamin also that they
shall go into captivity, and also against thee, O lord the king, that thou
shalt go (bound) with hooks

8 and iron chains': But they prophesy falsely against Israel and Judah.
And Isaiah himself hath

9 said: 'I see more than Moses the prophet.' But Moses said: 'No man can
see God and live':

10 and Isaiah hath said: 'I have seen God and behold I live.' Know,
therefore, O king, that he is lying. And Jerusalem also he hath called
Sodom, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem he hath declared to be
the people of Gomorrah. And he brought many accusations against Isaiah
and the

11 prophets before Manasseh. But Beliar dwelt in the heart of Manasseh
and in the heart of the

12 princes of Judah and Benjamin and of the eunuchs and of the
councillors of the king. And the words of Belchira pleased him
[exceedingly], and he sent and seized Isaiah.
 

1b, 2 And he sawed him asunder with a wood-saw. And when Isaiah was
being sawn in sunder Balchlra stood up, accusing him, and all the false
prophets stood up, laughing and rejoicing because

3 of Isaiah. And Balchlra, with the aid of Mechembechus, stood up before
Isaiah, [laughing]

4 deriding; And Belchlra said to Isaiah: 'Say: "I have lied in all that I have
spoken, and likewise

5 the ways of Manasseh are good and right. And the ways also of Balchlra
and of his associates are

6, 7 good."' And this he said to him when he began to be sawn in sunder.
But Isaiah was (absorbed)

8 in a vision of the Lord, and though his eyes were open, he saw them .
And Balchlra spake thus to Isaiah: 'Say what I say unto thee and I will turn
their heart, and I will compel Manasseh

9 and the princes of Judah and the people and all Jerusalem to reverence
thee.' And Isaiah answered and said: 'So far as I have utterance (I say):
Damned and accursed be thou and all thy powers and

10, 11 all thy house. For thou canst not take (from me) aught save the skin
of my body.' And they

12 seized and sawed in sunder Isaiah, the son of Amoz, with a wood-saw.
And Manasseh and

13 Balchlra and the false prophets and the princes and the people [and]
all stood looking on. And to the prophets who were with him he said before he had been sawn in sunder: 'Go ye to the region

14 of Tyre and Sidon; for for me only hath God mingled the cup.' And
when Isaiah was being sawn in sunder, he neither cried aloud nor wept,
but his lips spake with the Holy Spirit until he was sawn in twain.

From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphia of the Old Testament
<index.html>
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
Scanned and edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene College,
1995

 <http://www.ccel.org>  <http://www.ccel.org>This document is from the
Christian Classics Ethereal Library <http://www.ccel.org> at Calvin
College.  <http://www.calvin.edu>Last updated on May 27, 1999.
Contacting the CCEL. </info/email.html> <http://www.calvin.edu>
<http://www.calvin.edu>