Meqabyan

The First Book of Meqabyan

Chapter 1

¹A certain man named Tseerutsaydan loved his sin. He would often boast of the great profusion of his troops and of the great armies which he held governance over. ²He had countless priests who served the false gods which he worshiped, and [he would often] bow to them and make sacrifices by night and day. ³In the sightlessness of his own heart, he believed that they granted him power and strength. ⁴He believed that they gave him sovereignty over the nations. ⁵And as his sway over the nations progressed, he believed that [these false gods] granted him the right to supremacy. ⁶[The King] would offer sacrifices to them by night and day, ⁷appointing priests to serve these idols. ⁸These priests ate from the unclean sacrifices, all the while telling the king that the idols had consumed what was offered. ⁹They sought to proselytize among the people, so that they might make greater sacrifices to be consumed. ¹⁰The king trusted in these idols, which can grant no favors, nor yield any merit to his welfare. ¹¹At the time, when his heart was blind to the truth, [the king] believed that they had given him to fate, by placing him with a diadem. It would appear to him that [these idols] had created him, for Satan blocked him from knowledge of the true God, who alone grants eternal life. Rather, [Satan] sought to bring him away from life, into the fire of Gehenna forever, for he believed the idols to be gods, ¹²but since they do not truly live, they cannot give life. ¹³It was Satan’s tyranny that misled them, which was found within their idolatry. He gave of them false speech, and said he would reveal great truths to them, and for this he was loved. [Therefore, Satan] cast the people’s discernment upon the false gods and those that believe in them, and among all the children of Adam, whose prayers had become like that of the dust. ¹⁴They gazed upon [the idols] in solemn reverence, and [Satan] filled their mind with their own desires. And the people complied, offering as sacrifice their young girls and young boys, children of their own blood. They spilled the innocent blood of their children. ¹⁵This did not concern [the king], for Satan had savored the sacrifices he made to his gods in order to complete his malicious designs. [Satan sought to] bring him down into Gehenna, where he dwells, and where there is no respite for all eternity, and where all will receive chastisement. ¹⁶This king, Tseerutsaydan, was full of conceit; for he had fifty idols made of false gods, and twenty idols of false goddesses. ¹⁷He would often boast about his idolatry, and offered glorification and praise to the idols while he made his daily sacrifices. ¹⁸He commanded the people, that they too might make sacrifices to these idols. [The king] would eat from these unclean sacrifices, and ordered that the people do the same, to spread the evil which he created. ¹⁹Now, [the king] had five workshops which were under his command, where he forged the idols out of iron, brass and lead. ²⁰The king had them adorned in silver and in gold, and had veiled curtains around his palaces for them, each hidden in a tabernacle. ²¹He appointed guardians for their care, and would make offerings of meat to these idols from forty creatures — ten fattened oxen and ten fatted ewes, ten barren calves and ten barren goats, along with winged birds of the air. ²²It appeared to [the king] that these idols ate and drank, consuming fifty bunches of grapes and fifty dishes of bread kneaded with oil. ²³The king said to the priests, “Take this, give it to them. Let my gods consume the meat that has been slaughtered on their account. Make them drink of the wine I have given to them. If this is not enough to quench their desire, I will give them more.” ²⁴[The king] then ordered that everyone should eat and drink from that defiling sacrifice. ²⁵He then, in his corruption, sent out his armies to march on all the nations of his realm, to find one who would neither make sacrifices, nor prostrate themselves [before the idols], so that they could be brought before him. He sought to punish them by fire and by sword, [for he feared that the gods] might seize his wealth and burn his palaces. [The king] lived in terror that they might remove his great fortune and destroy him. ²⁶“My gods are generous and great, and out of their benevolence I have forged them. Therefore, I will give chastisement on him that does not worship my gods and make sacrifices to them. ²⁷I will show punishment and retribution! For they have created the heavens and the earth, the great wide sea, the moon and sun, the rains and the wind, and all that abide in this world. ²⁸Those who will not worship shall be punished under the penalty of law, and I shall have no mercy.”

Chapter 2

¹There was a certain man from the tribe of Benjamin, whose name was called Maqabis. ²He had three sons, fair of countenance and exceedingly strong; and they were beloved by every people throughout the dominion of Ṣiruṣaydan — in the land of the Chaldeans, in Midian, and in the country of the Medes. ³When [the king’s officers] found them, they said to them: “As the king has commanded, will you not bow down to the gods of Ṣiruṣaydan? Will you not offer sacrifice? ⁴And if you refuse, we will seize you and bring you before the king; and as the king has commanded, we will destroy all your possessions.” ⁵Those handsome young men answered them: “We have the God of our fathers, to whom we bow down — He who created heaven and earth, the sea and what is in it, the sun and the moon, the stars and the clouds. He is the true God whom we worship and in whom we trust.” ⁶Those officers of the king were four commanders, and the attendants who bore their arms were fifty for each one. ⁷When they wished to seize these holy ones, [the brothers] escaped from their hands, and none could touch them. For those young men were warriors of utterly overpowering strength; they took up shield and spear and went forth. ⁸Among them was one who would strangle a bear and kill it — he would choke it like a chicken on the spot. ⁹Among them was one who would kill a lion with a single stone, or with a single blow of a staff. ¹⁰Among them was one who in time of battle, with one stroke of a single sword, would kill a man at once; and so their name and their renown were proclaimed throughout all the land of Moab and of the Chaldeans. ¹¹They were warriors of great strength; and they had comeliness, and the loveliness of speech. ¹²Moreover, the beauty of their outward appearance was wonderful; but because they worshiped God and did not fear death, the beauty of their inward heart surpassed all. ¹³When they had terrified the troops, none was able to seize them; being mighty, they went up to a high mountain and escaped. ¹⁴Then those troops returned to the city and shut the gate of the fortress; and they terrified the people, saying: “Unless you bring us those warriors — the Meqabyans — we will burn your city with fire, and we will send word to the king and lay waste your country.” ¹⁵Then the people of the country — the poor and the rich, men and women, the orphan whose father and mother had died, and the widows — all came out and cried out together. They turned their eyes toward the mountain and cried out to them: “Do not destroy us and our country!” ¹⁶And at that time they wept together; and because of God, they were afraid. ¹⁷They turned their faces toward the east, and stretching out their hands, they prayed together to God, saying: “O Lord, shall we say ‘No’ to these men who have broken your commandment and your law? ¹⁸As for us, we have no desire to hear the word of that lawless man who does not believe in your law but trusts in gold and silver, and in stone and wood made by the hand of man. ¹⁹While You are the Creator who saves and who kills, he makes himself as though they [the idols] had created him; he is one who sheds the blood of man and eats the flesh of man. ²⁰As for us, we have no desire to see that lawless man’s face or to hear his speech. ²¹But if You command us, we will go to him; because we have trusted in You, we will hand over our bodies to death; and when he commands, ‘Sacrifice to the gods,’ we will not hearken to the word of that lawless man. ²²O Lord, God of our fathers — who did Your will and remained steadfast in Your law — You who search the kidneys and the heart, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob: as for us, we have trusted in You with our whole heart. ²³You search the heart of man and discern both the sinner and the righteous; nothing is hidden from You; what is concealed is revealed before You. ²⁴As for us, we have no other God besides You. ²⁵But for the sake of Your holy name — that we may give our bodies over to death — be for us, in this work in which we submit ourselves to You, strength, firmness, and refuge. ²⁶When Israel went down into the land of Egypt, You heard the prayer of Jacob; now also, O Holy God, we entreat You.” ²⁷When their appearance was utterly resplendent, and the two parties stood face to face and beheld one another, swords of fire descended like terrifying lightning; and in that moment they [the swords] cut their necks and slew them. And at that same moment they rose up alive as before. ²⁸The beauty of their appearance became utterly glorious; they shone more brightly than the sun; they became more lovely than before.

Chapter 3

¹And there came a voice from heaven, saying: “Servants of God Most High — Abya, Sila, Fentos! As you have seen these who died and rose again before your eyes, so also after your own death shall you rise; and your faces shall shine in the kingdom of heaven. ²Go with those men, and there receive your martyrdom.” ³Then they prayed and gave thanks, and bowed down to God; neither death nor the punishments of the king terrified them. ⁴And they went to those officers; they were like a lamb without malice and offered them no fight. When they reached them, the officers seized them and beat them; they bound them and scourged them, and brought them before the king and made them stand in his presence. ⁵And the king answered them: “You rebels — how is it that you will not sacrifice to the gods? How is it that you will not bow down?” ⁶Those holy and blessed ones, the elect and joyful, the wonder-precious-as-jewels brothers Abya, Sila, and Fentos answered him with one voice. ⁷They said to that pestilent king: “As for us, we will not sacrifice to defiled idols which have neither knowledge nor understanding; nor will we bow down to them. ⁸Further: we will not bow down to idols which are the work of human hands — gold and silver, stone and wood — which have neither soul nor mind nor knowledge, which do no good to those who do good to them, and do no evil to those who do evil to them.” ⁹And the king answered: “Why do you do this? They know those who slander them and wrong them — why do you slander the honorable gods?” ¹⁰They answered: “Because in our sight they are as nothing — therefore we slander them; and we will not honor them.” ¹¹And the king said: “According to the measure of the wickedness of your deeds I will punish you; with grievous torment and with scourges, and with fire I will destroy the comeliness of your appearance. ¹²Now then — tell me whether you will sacrifice to the gods or whether you will not; and if not, I will raise scourging and sword against you.” ¹³They answered: “As for us, we will not sacrifice to defiled idols; nor will we bow down.” And the king commanded that they be beaten with thick rods, then scourged with whips, and after that flayed until their inward parts were visible. ¹⁴After this he commanded that they be bound and shut up in prison, until he should take counsel how to punish them and put them to death. ¹⁵And they took them and, without pity, bound them in prison with strong bonds; and they remained in prison three days and three nights. ¹⁶After three days the king commanded the crier to go about summoning his nobles and counselors, his officers, and the elders of the country to assemble. ¹⁷And when King Ṣiruṣaydan was seated in the public square, he commanded that those honorable ones — Abya, Sila, and Fentos — be brought; bound and wounded, they stood before him. ¹⁸And the king said: “In these three days of your sitting, have you turned with a turning of repentance? Or do you remain in your former wickedness?” ¹⁹Those honorable soldiers of God answered: “As for us, we are resolute. We will never consent to worship an idol full of sin and wickedness, such as you yourself worship.” ²⁰Then that criminal, in his anger, commanded that they be hung up and that their wounds be reopened; and their blood ran upon the ground. ²¹Again he commanded that they be burned with torches and that their flesh be roasted; and they did so. And those honorable men said to him: “You godless one — speak on! According to the measure by which you multiply our punishment, our reward is multiplied.” ²²Again he commanded that ravening beasts — leopard and bear and lion — be brought, having been kept from their food, that they might wholly consume their flesh with their bones. ²³And he commanded the beast-keepers to set the beasts upon them; they did as he commanded. They bound the holy martyrs limb to limb; and again, with cunning, they drove stakes through and pinned them. ²⁴But the beasts came roaring and were unleashed upon them; and when they reached the martyrs, they bowed down to them and paid them homage. ²⁵Roaring, they turned back upon their keepers; they terrified the keepers and pursued them until they brought them all the way to the king’s presence. ²⁶And there they killed seventy-five men from among the soldiers of the criminals. ²⁷With terror, the people crowded one upon another and many were crushed, until the king left his throne and fled. And with great difficulty they seized the beasts and brought them back to their lair. ²⁸Then came the two brothers of Abya, Sila, and Fentos; and loosing them from the bonds with which they were bound, they said to them: “Come, let us flee, lest these criminals and waverers find us.” ²⁹Those martyrs answered their brothers: “After we have stood for martyrdom it is not fitting that we flee. If you yourselves are afraid, flee and go.” ³⁰And those, their younger brothers, said: “We also will stand with you before the king; if you die, we will die with you.” ³¹After this, the king on the gallery above the hall of his kingdom saw that those blessed men had been loosed and that all five brothers stood together. The officers who marshaled and punished the troops, having inquired and learned that they were brothers, reported it to the king; and the king, in his anger, roared like a wild boar in the wilderness. ³²And the king commanded that all five brothers together be seized and cast into prison until he should take counsel how to punish them. With unhewn timber he had them bound with grievous bonds, and they laid them in prison. ³³And King Ṣiruṣaydan said: “These wandering young men have wearied me. How firm is the mind of these men! And the wickedness of their work is as the firmness of their strength; whenever I think they will turn, they make their minds the worse for it. ³⁴I will repay them according to the measure of their wicked work. I will burn their flesh with fire until they are charred ash; and I will scatter the ash of their flesh on a mountain like dust, so that the wind may carry them away.” ³⁵When he had said this, after three days he commanded that those holy ones be brought; and when those holy ones drew near, in a great pit-furnace he commanded that fire be kindled, and that they cast into it the things that should make the fire rage and the cauldron boil — pitch and tow, sea-foam and resin, and brimstone. ³⁶When the fire in the pit was blazing, the messengers came to the king saying: “We have done what you commanded; send the man who is to be added to it.” ³⁷And he commanded that they be received and cast into the fire-pit. The officers did as the king commanded; and as those holy ones entered into the fire, they gave their souls to God. ³⁸And angels received them — the very men who had cast them in seeing it. Their souls they took to where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are — to Paradise where joy is found.

Chapter 4

¹When that criminal saw that they were dead, he commanded that their flesh be burned with fire until they became ash, and that the wind scatter them. But the fire was unable to burn even the hair of their heads from the body; and they took them out of the pit. ²Again, from morning till evening, they kindled fire over them; it did not touch them. They said: “Now then, come — let us cast their corpses into the sea.” ³The king commanded as they had said, and they cast them into the sea. Heavy iron weights and great stones, and a millstone such as a donkey turns by the wheel — they added these and cast them with them; but the sea did not drown them. The Spirit of God was upon them, and they floated on the sea and did not sink into its deep; and in all the cunning that was contrived against them, they could not be destroyed. ⁴And he said: “Their death has wearied me more than their life. What shall I do but throw their corpses to the wild beasts, that they may eat them?” ⁵They did so; but the beasts and the carrion-birds did not touch their corpses. Carrion-birds and birds of the air covered them with their wings, that the sun might not burn them; and the corpses of those five martyrs remained for fourteen days. ⁶When the people saw them, their bodies shone like the rays of the sun. And so that light might encompass them as a tent, angels surrounded their corpses. ⁷He took counsel and found nothing he could do; after this, he dug into the earth and buried the corpses of the five martyrs. ⁸And to that godless king as he lay sleeping on his bed by night, the five martyrs appeared in his presence, drawing their swords and standing in his face by night. ⁹When he woke from his sleep, fearing — it seemed to him that they had entered his house by criminal means — he desired to flee from corner to corner of the house. It seemed to him that they had laid charges against him, and that they would kill him; and out of fear his knees trembled. ¹⁰Therefore he said: “Lords, what do you seek? What shall I do for you?” ¹¹They answered: “Are you not he who killed us by burning us in the fire, and who commanded us to be cast into the sea? Because we believed in God, he kept our bodies, and you were unable to destroy us. No one who believes in him perishes; therefore let praise and thanksgiving go up to God for his glory. We who believed in him were not put to shame in our affliction.” ¹²“I did not know,” he said, “that such a punishment would overtake me; for the evil I have done against you — what payment shall I give you? ¹³Now then — determine for me the payment I shall give you, that you may not take my body in death, nor lead me down to Sheol while I am yet living. ¹⁴For I have transgressed against you; and because the law of God your father is merciful, forgive me my sin.” ¹⁵Those blessed martyrs answered him: “We will repay you no evil for the evil you have done to us; the one who repays the wages is God — and our Creator God shall pay you your wages. ¹⁶But because of the smallness of your knowledge and the dullness of your mind, we have revealed ourselves to you, that you might see we are living; and we have prepared life for the one whom you thought you had killed. ¹⁷As for you and your idols’ priests — you shall descend to Gehenna whence there is no way out forever. ¹⁸You who, being a man of spittle, have abandoned bowing down to God who created you, and bow down to idols you yourselves worship — woe to those idols and to you! You do not know whence you have come; are you not vapor that appears today and tomorrow is gone?” ¹⁹And the king answered: “What do you command me to do, that I may do all that you desire?” ²⁰“What we teach you is for your own sake, that you may not enter into the Gehenna of fire; not for ours. ²¹For your idols are gold and silver, stone and wood, made by human hands; they have neither soul, nor mind, nor knowledge. ²²They neither kill nor save; they do no good and no evil; they do not humble and do not honor; they do not impoverish and do not enrich; they do not uproot and do not plant. ²³But by the spirit of demons who love that not even one of those whose hearts are blind, like yours, should be saved, they deceive you. While you are the ones who made them, it seems to you that they have made you. ²⁴The spirits of demons and of Satan dwell in them; and as you have desired, they answer you back, to drown you in the sea of Gehenna. ²⁵As for you — leave this error of yours and worship the Lord our God; let this be the wage we receive in place of our death, that we may profit our souls.” ²⁶And he stood astonished, marveling utterly. For all five had appeared to him with drawn swords, and he was afraid; therefore he bowed down to them. ²⁷“Now then,” he said, “I have known that the dust-dead in truth rise up after their death; and I myself had little remaining before dying.” ²⁸After this, the martyrs vanished from the king’s sight. And from that day onward, that Ṣiruṣaydan — utterly arrogant and proud — left off burning their corpses. ²⁹But after many days he became proud again in his idols, in the error of his mind, and was glad in them. It was not he alone who erred: until they should leave off following him, he led many like himself astray. ³⁰They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons; the desire of their mind which Satan their father had taught them — uproar and licentiousness, and that which God does not love — these they did. Fornication and licentiousness they wrought. ³¹They married their own mothers; they defiled their sisters and aunts; this defiling work and everything that resembled it they did; their bodies they defiled. Satan had hardened the minds of those perverted people, and they said: “We will not turn back.” ³²That Ṣiruṣaydan, ignorant of his Creator, was proud and arrogant, and put his trust in his idols. ³³“How,” he said, “shall God give kingship to those who do not know him? It is because he tests them, that they may utterly return to him.” ³⁴But if they had utterly returned, he would have loved them and preserved their kingdom; but since they refused, he will punish them in the writhing of Gehenna forever. ³⁵A king, then, in proportion to the greatness of his kingship, ought to fear the Lord God; and as a judge, in proportion to the greatness of his dominion, ought to submit himself in goodness to his Creator. ³⁶The great elders, the chiefs, and the officers also, in proportion to the greatness of their honor, ought to obey their Creator. ³⁷For he is Lord of heaven and earth, who created all his creation; he is the one who impoverishes and the one who enriches, who humbles and who honors; for above in heaven and below on earth, there is no other God besides him.

Chapter 5

¹Re’aytawi boasted; but God, by a single mosquito-bite, made his body swell from foot to head; and by that little mosquito he died. ²Again, Nimrod boasted, who because of the abundance of his violence had a bed of iron made for himself; and God destroyed him. ³Again, Nebuchadnezzar boasted: “There is no king besides me; I am the one who makes the sun rise upon the earth.” So he spoke from the abundance of his arrogance. ⁴God separated him from humankind and sent him into the wilderness for seven years; he made his lot with the beasts of the wilderness and the birds of heaven, until he should know that the one who made him is God. ⁵And when he knew, God restored him again to his kingdom. Who has boasted with arrogance against God his Creator, and the earth has not also become his ash? ⁶Who has broken his law and his ordinance, and the earth has not swallowed him? ⁷“Ṣiruṣaydan, you also desire to boast against your Creator; he also shall destroy you because of your arrogance, as he did them, and bring you down to the grave. ⁸Furthermore, he shall bring you down to Sheol — the end of darkness, where there is gnashing of teeth and weeping; and after you have entered, to the great and deep pit from which there is no exit forever. ⁹For you yourself are tomorrow’s mortal and shall perish, like the arrogant kings who were as you and have left this world’s life.” ¹⁰As for us, we say: “You are a man and not God. The God who made earth and heaven also made you; ¹¹and he it is who brings down the proud, and who honors the humble; who gives strength to the weary, and gives weariness to the strong. ¹²He kills the living, and again raises the dead who have been buried in the grave and have become dust. ¹³And he frees slaves from the bondage of sin into life. ¹⁴O King Ṣiruṣaydan! Why do you boast in your defiled idols, which are of no profit? ¹⁵For God it was who created the heavens, who founded the earth, who made the great sea, who made the sun and the moon, who established times and years. ¹⁶A man goes out to his tilling and remains plowing until dusk; and the stars of heaven endure standing fast by his word. ¹⁷He calls them all by their names; and there is no thing that comes to be without God knowing it. ¹⁸He commanded the angels of heaven that they should serve him and praise his honored name; and the angels are sent to all those who shall inherit life. ¹⁹The angel Raphael was sent to Tobit; and he saved Tobiah in the land of Raguel. ²⁰An angel was sent to Gideon, that he might make known to him how to destroy the Ammonites; and an angel was sent to the prophet Moses when Israel crossed the Red Sea. ²¹For thus it is written: ‘God alone led them, and there was no other god with them.’ [Deut 32:12] ²²He brought them to the harvest that is upon the earth. ²³He fed them with the grain of the threshing-floor; he loved them utterly, and fed them with honey from the rock. [Deut 32:13] ²⁴He made you king over the people; he gave you authority over the four kingdoms, that you might keep his people faithfully and do the will of God your Creator. ²⁵He set you above all in kingship, that you might love your Creator God in full. ²⁶And you, as you have loved him and trusted him over all his people — you ought to love God your Creator utterly, and do God’s will, that your days upon all the earth may be multiplied, and that he may dwell with you, ²⁷and stand up for you against your enemies, and seat you upon all your thrones, and shelter you with his wing. ²⁸For if you should know — when God chose Saul from among the sons of Israel and made him king over his people Israel, while he was tending his father’s donkeys, and seated him on the throne with the prophet Samuel — so also has he chosen you. ²⁹He separated him from his brothers and gave him a high lot, saying: ‘From this day God makes you king over the people Israel, that you may keep his people; ³⁰that you may kill and save, since God has appointed you over them; keep with good those who do good and with evil those who do evil. ³¹For though you scourge or save, that you may do his will, God has appointed you over all. Repay the doers of good with good; and the doers of evil with evil. ³²You are the servant of God who rules all in heaven; in everything you have planned, submitting yourself before him — that he may do your will in everything you have asked — you also, in every time and every hour, do the will of God. ³³For there is none who rules him; but he rules all. ³⁴There is none who appoints him; but he appoints all. ³⁵There is none who removes him; but he removes all. ³⁶There is none who blames him; but he blames all. ³⁷There is none who summons him; but he summons all. The authority of heaven and earth is his; there is none who escapes his hand; before him all is revealed, and there is nothing hidden from his eye. ³⁸He sees all; but there is none who sees him. He hears the prayer of those who pray to him; he receives their prayer; for he created humankind in his image and in his likeness. ³⁹And from his treasury that does not fail, he feeds all. For he is King who endures forever.’”

Chapter 6

¹“For he truly makes king those kings who do his will; and the kings have written what is straight concerning him. ²Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, David and Solomon and Hezekiah, and all the holy kings whose dwelling is light — he shines upon their dwelling with light that cannot be searched out. ³Not as the hall that is upon earth; but the hall that is in heaven, utterly luminous. Its floor of gold and silver and pearl is pure. ⁴Its utterly shining appearance is removed from the mind of man. The hall of the kingdom of heaven shines with topaz and emerald, with chalcedony and aquamarine. ⁵It is a kingdom-hall shining utterly with precious gems beyond man’s imagining. It is the hall of the kingdom of heaven that he himself, God, has fashioned as he knows it. Its floor is of gold and silver, of sky-blue gem and green gem, of yellow gem, and the color of white silk — pure. ⁶Thus it is utterly beautiful — pure and luminous. ⁷It is built with righteousness and truth; and made with forgiveness and mercy. ⁸And from it flows water of life, whiter than the sun; there is a tent of light, fragranced with the perfume of Hermon. ⁹And around its house, sweet fruit of Paradise is planted, whose form and scent are surpassing. And there is a place of vine and olive — utterly beautiful, of pleasing fragrance. ¹⁰If a fleshly man should enter it, from the sweetness of its scent and the abundance of its joy his soul would be parted from his flesh. ¹¹And in it those good kings who did the will of God are made glad; their work and their place are known in the kingdom of heaven, in the place of eternal life. ¹²As the glory of their kingship was on earth, so is it in heaven; just as they were honored on earth and bowed down to, so are they honored in heaven; and they are exalted. Even in this world they are made glad if they do good work. ¹³But wicked kings — who do not judge truly and rightly in the kingship and dominion God has given them, who have neglected the cry of the poor and of those who fast for lack of food, who do not save the oppressed and the foreigner and the orphan; ¹⁴who do not deliver the poor and the hungry from those who plunder them; who do not satisfy the hungry from their food; who do not give drink to the thirsty from their drink; who have not turned their ear to the cry of the poor — ¹⁵these shall be brought down to the dwelling of Sheol, which is the end of darkness; and as David said in his psalm — ‘Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, and do not chastise me in your wrath’ [Ps 6:1] — when that great day God has prepared, and his wrath, comes upon them, according to the abundance of their renown so shall their hardship and shame abound. ¹⁶While kings and princes upon earth rule this world, they take those who have not kept his law. ¹⁷But in heaven there is God who rules all; the soul of all is in his hand; the life of all is in his mouth; he it is who gives honor to those who honor him; he is all-powerful; he rules all and loves those who love him. ¹⁸He, the King of heaven and earth, searches heart and kidneys; he gives the wages of his prayer to whoever has prayed to him with a pure heart. ¹⁹He shall destroy the arrogance of the mighty who do evil to widows and orphans. ²⁰It was not by your strength that you took hold of this kingdom; it was not by your competence that you have sat upon this throne. But God, having permitted that you be tested as Saul was tested — Saul who, in his days, in ruling his people, despised the word of God and the word of Samuel, and did not kill the king of Amalek and his army — set you on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹For God had told the prophet Samuel: ‘Go, say to Saul: They have grieved me by breaking the law and worshiping their idols, and by bowing to the idol in its sanctuaries, and in all their worthless defiled work — therefore, go to the country of Amalek; from man to beast, kings and their armies — all, destroy.’ ²²Therefore, when they had grieved God, he sent him to destroy them. ²³But Saul saved their king; many cattle, and women and virgins; and from among the young men, the handsome ones — he saved. Therefore God said to the prophet Samuel: ‘He has set my word at nothing; he has not obeyed my commandment; go and divide his kingship from him. ²⁴In his place, anoint David the son of Jesse to reign over Israel. ²⁵And in him [in Saul] let a demon that grips and casts him down be set to work. ²⁶He whom I had given the kingdom that he might do my will has refused; and when he refused to do my will, I removed him from his honor. But you — go, tell him; say thus to him: As for God who set you king over his people Israel, and who seated you on the throne of the kingdom — do you thus despise him? ²⁷You have not known the God who gave you such great honor and renown.’” ²⁸“And the prophet Samuel went to King Saul. He went in to him while he was seated at table, with Agag king of Amalek seated at his left. ²⁹‘Why have you utterly despised God,’ he said, ‘who commanded you to destroy man and beast?’ ³⁰At that time, the king arose in fear from his throne, and laid hold of Samuel’s garment; but Samuel refused to turn back, and Samuel’s garment was rent. ³¹And Samuel said to Saul: ‘God has divided your kingdom.’ ³²Again Saul said to Samuel: ‘Honor me before the people, and make atonement for my sin before God, that he may forgive me.’ But Samuel refused to alter the word — for he feared the word of his Creator God, and did not fear a mortal king. ³³Therefore, that he might not swallow what he had not chewed, he ran through Agag king of Amalek.” ³⁴“And as for that godless one who had broken God’s word, an unclean spirit took him; it struck him in the head. For God does not stand in awe of a king who does iniquity; he is the King of kings who commands all. ³⁵For he is Lord of all his creation, who removes the rule of every king and prince whom they do not fear; there is none who commands him. ³⁶As it has been said: ‘The house of David goes growing ever more great; but the house of Saul goes ever more low’ [2 Sam 3:1] — so he destroyed the kingdom from Saul and his son. ³⁷Because he was grieved, and because he had not destroyed the criminals who had grieved him by their evil work, God in his vengeance destroyed the house of Saul. For the one who does not avenge the enemy of God is himself the enemy of God. ³⁸He who can avenge, and to whom authority has been given, but who does not avenge the sinner — the one who avenges not him who has no law of God — that man is in truth the enemy of God.”

Chapter 7

¹“You also, whether king or governor — what are you? Is it not God who created you? ²He brought you from non-existence into existence, that you might do his will, walk in his commandment, and fear his judgment. Just as you are angry with your slaves and rule over them, so also is there one who is angry with you and rules over you. ³As you strike sinners without mercy, so also is there God who strikes you, and who shall add to you a judgment which has no end forever. ⁴As you scourge whoever has not submitted to you and not brought a tribute-gift, why do you not bring a tribute-gift to God? ⁵As you wish to be feared, why do you not fear God your Creator? For it is he who created you and made you king over all his creation, that you might faithfully keep his people and his flock. ⁶Judge truly and rightly as God has appointed you; do not show favor to great or small. Whom shall you fear, except him? Keep his way and his commandment. ⁷As Moses commanded the sons of Israel: ‘I have set before you fire and water; stretch out your hand to whichever you have chosen’ [cf. Sir 15:16] — do not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ⁸So that you may hear his word and do his commandment, hear the word I tell you: that you might not say, ‘Across the sea, across the deep, across the river — there is the word; who will bring it to me that I may see, that I may hear the word, that I may do God’s commandment?’ ⁹And again that you might not say: ‘Who will go up to heaven for me and bring down for me that word of God, that I may hear and do it?’ Behold, the word is near in your mouth; it is in your hand. [Deut 30:11–14] ¹⁰If you have not heard the book, you have not heard God your Creator; if you have not kept his word, you have not loved him; you have not done his commandment. ¹¹And you, if you have not loved his commandment and not done the will of him who set you apart from all your kindred and honored you and made you great — you shall enter judgment forever. ¹²He made you head and chief over all the people, that you might remember the name of God your Creator; he gave you to rule his people truly and rightly. ¹³There are those whom you punish among the people who have transgressed against you; there is also one whom you forgive, having remembered God’s way and inclining your heart in good and righteous judgment. ¹⁴When men plead before you, do not show partiality; the whole earth is your possession; do not take a bribe by which you might forgive the sinner and oppress the innocent. ¹⁵If you do his will, he will multiply your days upon the earth; but if you grieve him, he will diminish your days. ¹⁶Remember that you will rise from death, that whether good or evil — in all the work you have done — you shall stand before him to be examined. ¹⁷If you do good work, you shall dwell in the dwellings of the good kings, in houses of light. But if you do evil work, you shall dwell in the dwellings of the evil kings. ¹⁸God does not stand in awe of your kingly power. But you — when you have seen the splendor of your fearfulness, the trophies of your warriors, your hung-up war-armor; when you have seen your horses, the soldiers under your authority, those who blow trumpets and play harps before you — ¹⁹when you have seen all this, you exalt your understanding; you stiffen your neck; you forget him who has given you all this honor. When he says ‘Stop,’ are you not the one who must stop? ²⁰He gave you the post you hold; and when you have utterly disregarded it, he gives your honor to another. ²¹For death will come on you suddenly, and at the resurrection judgment will be made, and every work of man will be examined; and there you shall be examined; he shall control you; he shall judge you. ²²The kings of the earth have none to honor them in that day, since he is the Judge of truth; and at the time of judgment poor and rich shall stand together. The crowns in which the princes of the earth trust shall fall. ²³Judgment is prepared; the soul trembles; the books are opened; the works of men are revealed; and there is none hidden. ²⁴As when a woman comes to give birth, and the fetus within her womb has come to be born, the womb cannot keep it back — so shall the earth, at the time of the resurrection of the dead, return the trust deposited in it. ²⁵Or — can the clouds keep back the rain so that they do not rain upon the place where God has commanded them? In the same way, since the word of God brought all from non-existence into existence and made it; and again, since the word of God has brought all into the grave — when the time of resurrection has come, it is not possible to make the dead not rise. ²⁶Again, as he spoke to Moses: ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by the word that comes from the mouth of God’ [Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4] — the word of God shall raise every man from the grave. ²⁷Behold, it has been made known that the dead live by the word of God. ²⁸Furthermore, concerning kings and princes and those who do his will, God said in Deuteronomy: ‘Their day of accounting has come; at the time of judgment, when their foot stumbles, I will avenge them’ [cf. Deut 32:35]. ²⁹Again, to those who do not know God’s judgment, God said: ‘Know that I am God; I kill, and I save. ³⁰I scourge, and I forgive; I lead down to Sheol and again I bring up to heaven; and there is none who escapes my hand.’ [Deut 32:39] ³¹To kings and princes who have not kept his law, God said: ‘Earthly kingship passes away; from morning till evening it passes. Keep my law and my ordinance, that you may enter into my eternal kingdom. ³²For the calling of God is for honor or for shame; this he humbles, and this he honors. ³³Whoever has not done his will, he removes; and whoever has done his will, he appoints.’”

Chapter 8

¹“Now hear also concerning the resurrection of the dead; let me tell you. Trees are planted; they put forth branches; the vine puts forth tendrils; and they make wine from it — for God brings forth its fruit from non-existence. ²Just look: that tree you planted was once small. But today it has put forth ends, leaf, and fruit. ³And God waters its root from two breasts — from water and from earth. ⁴But its wood he feeds from wind and from sun; the root waters the leaf with water; the earth gives firmness to the wood. ⁵And the wind which God created gives fruit in their midst. So also is the resurrection of the dead. ⁶When the soul has been separated from the flesh, having taken its course, God said: ‘Gather souls from the four corners — from water and earth, from fire and wind.’ ⁷The nature of earth stood firm in itself; it became ash. The nature of water stood firm in itself; it became dew. ⁸The nature of wind stood firm in itself; it became wind. The nature of fire stood firm in itself; it became fire that gives warmth. ⁹But the soul God created returned to the hand of its Creator; when he wills, he restores it, and dwells it where he wills. ¹⁰The souls of the righteous he keeps in a house of light; the souls of sinners he keeps in a house of darkness, until the time he wills to bring them forth. ¹¹To the prophet Ezekiel he said: ‘Call from the four corners that they may be gathered and may become one body.’ [Ezek 37:9] ¹²And when he had spoken thus with one word, they were gathered from the four corners. ¹³And the nature of water brought dew; again, the nature of fire brought warmth. ¹⁴The nature of earth again brought earth; the nature of wind brought breath. ¹⁵And God brought the soul from its dwelling where he had set it; in one word they were gathered, and the resurrection took place. ¹⁶And in your own experience, I will show you another sign: day darkens; you sleep; the night brightens; and you rise from your sleep. While you slept, you were of death. ¹⁷And when you woke, that is a sign of the resurrection. But the night, all darkness — that is a sign of this world. The whole world sleeps in it, for the darkness of night has covered them. ¹⁸But the morning light, in which darkness is taken away, by which there is light in all the world, by which a man rises and goes out to his work — that is a sign of the resurrection of the dead. ¹⁹This renewal of the world and the resurrection of the dead is thus; for this world passes away in the likeness of this night. ²⁰And David said: ‘He has set its sign in the sun.’ [Ps 19:4] When the sun rises and shines, it is the sign of this world. ²¹As the sun shines on this world today, so when he comes — even God himself — he will shine for the renewed world; he will shine as the sun. For he has said: ‘I am the sun that does not set, the lantern that does not fail’ [cf. Isa 60:19–20]; for God himself is its light. ²²Furthermore, he will raise up the dead in the blink of an eye. And I will bring you another sign — from the food from which you sow, and by which you live: be it a kernel of wheat, of barley, or of lentil — there is no fruit-of-labor a man sows in the earth which sprouts unless it has first been undone. ²³As you see, when all human flesh undergoes its undoing, the fruit with its chaff is consumed in the earth. ²⁴And when the fruit is consumed, sprouting as a seventh part of the seed, God gives the breath of life as he wills; the root sprouts within the earth; and it puts forth leaf upon the earth. ²⁵Just look: until it has been undone, it cannot sprout. But after it sprouts, it puts forth many shoots. ²⁶To that shoot which has grown, fruit is given by God; and the fruit is enwrapped by the chaff. ²⁷See only how the seed you have sown has multiplied; the leaf, the stalk, the chaff, and the head — they cannot be counted for you. ²⁸Do not be foolish; see how your seed has multiplied; and even so think about the resurrection of the dead, and how each shall be repaid according to his work. ²⁹Hear yet again — that one seed does not transform into another; let me tell you. If you sow wheat, will you reap barley? If you sow cumin, will you reap flax? ³⁰And from the kind of plants: if you plant a fig, will it grow into almond for you? If you plant a walnut, will it sprout into a vine for you? ³¹If you plant sweet fruit, will it sprout as bitter? If you plant bitter fruit, will it sprout as sweet? ³²In just this way: if a sinner has died, can he become righteous at the resurrection? If a righteous person has died, can he become a sinner at the resurrection? Each shall be repaid as his work, according to the fruit of his work and the work of his hand; he shall not be judged for some other sin. ³³The tree of Lebanon is planted; it puts forth tall and great branches; it withers and is shed unless the dew of Hermon falls upon it; its leaf does not flourish. ³⁴The cedar also: if the winter rain has not fallen upon it, it is uprooted. ³⁵In just this way: the dead do not rise unless the dew of life from God falls upon them.”

Chapter 9

¹“For the valleys of Galaboh and the mountains of Lebanon — if the rain of mercy from God does not fall upon them — do not put forth grass for the cattle and for the wild beasts. ²The mountains of Gilead and the valleys of Elam do not give greenness for the goats and sheep that graze, and for the wild creatures — for the wild ass and the wild ox, and for the gazelle. ³In the same way — apostates and heretics who have made their possession of denial and error from the beginning, if God’s dew of mercy has not come down upon them, the dead do not rise. The idol-worshipers, and root-chewers, those who contrive matters that they may quarrel — Cyprus and Damascus, ⁴the root-chewers, sorcerers and conjurers, and slayers of men, ⁵those who, having gone out from the law, lust greedily; who trust in their idol — the men of Athens and of Media, those who play lyres and timbrels and harps for their idols, who sing for them, ⁶who err with their idol, who pursue their lust by the work of their hand — these at the time of the resurrection, on the day of judgment, will not save themselves; these are they upon whom judgment shall fall. ⁷You foolish one, you of empty mind — does it seem to you that the dead do not rise? ⁸At the resurrection of the dead, when the trumpet is blown by the mouth of the archangel — by holy Michael — you shall not remain in your slumber. Therefore do not think this. ⁹Mountains and hills shall be made low; rivers and depths shall be made even; a way prepared shall come to be. [Isa 40:4] ¹⁰And for all flesh there shall be resurrection.”

Chapter 10

¹“If it were not so — why is it that the fathers of old, beginning from Adam and from Abel and Seth, from Noah and Shem, from Abraham and Isaac, from Jacob and Joseph, from Moses and Aaron — did not desire to be buried outside the graves of their fathers? ²Was it not that at the resurrection they might rise together with their kin? That their bones should not be reckoned with the bones of the wicked who worship idols — with idol-worshipers and the heathen? ³But as for you — when many thousand upon thousand are buried in a single grave and their bones decay, saying, ‘How shall the dead rise after they are dead?’ — do not let your mind be deluded. ⁴When you look into a grave and no handful of earth is found, you say in your mind’s folly: ‘How shall the dead rise?’ ⁵Will you say the seed you have sown does not sprout? Even the seed you have sown sprouts. ⁶In the same way, the souls God has sown — they shall rise speedily. Since he has brought man from non-existence into existence by his truth, he does not delay raising them with his life-giving word. ⁷Furthermore, he returns him from existence into death; furthermore, he returns him from death into existence. ⁸God is able to give life and to raise up.”

Chapter 11

¹Hermon and her walls have fallen; for God has repaid them according to their wickedness and the work their hands have done. At that time, those who worship idols in Zebulun and Edom shall be brought low; for they have done so from their childhood and have not left it even to old age. Therefore Tyre and Sidon shall weep, since judgment is at hand against them for their idol and their wickedness. ²And because they have wrought licentiousness and defilement and fornication, and worshiped idols, God shall avenge himself against them. And the daughters of Judah shall be brought low; for they have not stood firm in the commandment of God their Creator. ³And likewise, at the resurrection, the shame of Jerusalem shall be revealed; for she did not walk in the law and judgment of God; but she lived in delight and in killing the righteous. ⁴At that time, God will search her by the light of his wisdom; he will avenge himself for all she did in the days of her childhood, in the days of her youth — for all the wickedness she did not leave even to her old age. ⁵Since they have lived in their custom and refused God’s commandment, since at the resurrection he shall avenge himself against them — like her former fathers, she shall enter the grave and become dust. ⁶For Moses spoke concerning them: “Their vineyard is like the vineyard of Sodom. ⁷Their tendril is from Gomorrah; their cluster is a cluster of gall; their fruit is bitter. ⁸Their wine is the poison of serpents; even the poison of the deadly viper.” [Deut 32:32–33]

Chapter 12

¹Daughter of Jerusalem! This is your shame which has been written by the prophet. Daughter of Jerusalem! Your work and your iniquity are like the work and iniquity of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. ²Your shame is as Gomorrah’s, as Sodom’s; the place of their vineyard was planted in lust and arrogance. ³From fornication and arrogance, from violence and iniquity, from plunder and shedding of blood, from forgetting the name of God their Creator — except these, no rain of humility and mercy came down on them. ⁴Except for their evil works and their idol, they have not known their Creator God; they are glad in the work of their hand; they fornicate with cattle and with man. ⁵Their eyes have been blinded that they may not see; their ears have been deafened that they may not hear, that they may not do the will of God and what he loves. By their work they do not know God; they are the vineyard of Sodom; their offspring is also the tendril of Gomorrah, that bears no sweet fruit. ⁶For from the day they were planted they have been planted with a curse, and their plantation was in the time of destruction; when they have pressed their vine, it becomes deadly poison. ⁷For the planting of their vine has drunk Sheol’s water; their tendril has been hardened in the hot wind; their vine-tendril has no goodness for all time. ⁸When it has borne fruit and is pressed, it has become for scourge and for destruction; it hardens the minds of those who drink it; it makes them perverse and far from God. ⁹And by their evil work they live; he makes them a dwelling for the Devil. The Sodomic tendril begins to consume; she climbs up to the mountains and to the trees. ¹⁰And the idol of those around her she covers with her shade; to demons who know neither evil nor good, she sacrifices her daughters and her sons. ¹¹And they pour out innocent blood; from Sodomic wine they have made an eternal pouring, and to the idol they pour out. ¹²She honors and worships Dagon whom the Ammonites worship. ¹³That she may sacrifice to them and do their will: from her childhood till her youth, then from her old age till the day of her death — always, from the cattle of her flock the fattened ones she sacrifices to them; rejoicing in the demons’ drink and folly which they have taught her, that she may not know God her Creator who has fed her and cared for her always. ¹⁴Furthermore — “At the time of the resurrection I shall avenge myself against her; for she did not turn back to my law, did not endure faithfully in my commandment; her time shall be unto eternity. ¹⁵If her gods are truly her creators, then when I was angry with her in my wrath, when I separated from her those friends who fornicate with her, let them rise up and run to Gehenna and save her. ¹⁶As she rendered insult and shame against my house and against the vessels of my sanctuary, so among all I have made her a wretched outcast. ¹⁷Behold, this is the people of God; it is the house of God, Creator of Israel; it is the dwelling-place of the name of the Most High. Yet though it is called ‘set apart of the set apart’ and ‘city of the king of glory — Jerusalem’ — she has grieved my name by which she was named. ¹⁸As she was my servant and I her Lord, she boasts in me; but she points the finger at me like a criminal, and is not one who fears me as her Lord and does my will. ¹⁹She has become a stumbling-block to lead astray; she submits to other gods who do not feed her or rear her or clothe her, instead of those who do. ²⁰She sacrifices to them; she eats their sacrifice; she pours out the drink-offering for them; she drinks the drink-offering; she burns incense for them; she breathes the fragrance of the incense for them; they command her; she submits to them. ²¹Again she sacrifices her sons and her daughters to them; she shouts for joy at her love for them, and is glad in the work of her hand and in the speech of her lips. ²²On the day of judgment, woe to her! Woe to the gods she loves and embraces! Together with them she shall descend to that uttermost Sheol where the worm does not sleep and the fire is not quenched.” ²³“Wretched daughter of Jerusalem, woe to you — for you have forsaken me who created you and have worshiped other gods. ²⁴And I shall bring upon you the recompense of your work; you have grieved me, you have despised my word, you have not made your work right; according to your provocation I shall avenge myself. ²⁵For you have grieved my word; in my commandment which I commanded you that you might keep, that I might dwell with you, that I might save you from all who attack you — in my covenant in which I swore with you — you have not stood firm. Therefore I disregard you; I shall not save you speedily. ²⁶All this you have not kept; and I have disregarded you. In the time of judgment also I shall avenge myself against you. Am I not the one who created you? You have not kept my word and my commandment; I had honored you, that you might be of my people. ²⁷Sodom and Gomorrah were separated; you also have separated yourself from me. ²⁸I destroyed them in my wrath; you are of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah whom I destroyed; by going to a young man’s wife, by lying with women, by lusting against the law with cattle and with man, those whom I created have grieved me; therefore the calling of their name have I destroyed from the earth, that they should not live in their pleasure. ²⁹From the least to the greatest, there is no fearing of God before them; they assist him [Satan] in every evil work; not one of them rebukes another to leave off doing that work; for their work is evil; they are sated with iniquity and transgression. ³⁰All evil work — plunder and arrogance, greed — is prepared in their thought. ³¹Therefore God disregarded them; he overturned their cities; some he burned with fire to their foundations; they perished utterly forever, and not one of them remained. ³²For they are bound in sin; until the great day of judgment when the eternal judgment shall be given, they shall await; in their evil work they have grieved me, and I shall not have mercy on them and shall not forgive them. ³³I also disregarded them. In the same way, you, wretched daughter of Jerusalem — at the time of judgment, like them, you shall be bound. For all your work is plunder and sin, lust and greed, and speaking lies; and since it is the path of error and slipping which I do not love, when I take hold of you in my anger you shall find no excuse. ³⁴I had made you for honor; but you made yourself for shame. I had made you for myself; but you became for another. ³⁵I had betrothed you for holiness; but you became for the Devil; and I shall avenge myself against you as is the wickedness of your work. ³⁶Because you have not heard all my word, because when I loved you, you did not keep the commandment I commanded you — for I am God who created you — I shall multiply heavy vengeance against you; and against all sinners like you I shall be angry; according to their wickedness I shall repay them on the day of judgment. ³⁷You have not kept my word; and you have disregarded my judgment; together with them I shall punish you. ³⁸You who have no fearing of God in your hearts — Sodom and Gomorrah — woe to you! ³⁹In the fire of Gehenna, woe also to your sister who shall be judged with you in unity — the daughter of Jerusalem; for to Gehenna prepared with no exit forever, you shall descend together; and woe to all who do your work. ⁴⁰For you have not kept my word and my commandment; and you who have not kept my word and my commandment — you and she — at the time of judgment shall descend together to Sheol. ⁴¹But the righteous who have kept my word and my commandment shall eat what the sinners fattened; what the wicked plundered, the good shall divide as God has commanded; and the righteous and the good shall rejoice; they shall be glad. ⁴²But sinners and transgressors shall weep; for all the wickedness they did, going out from my commandment, they shall be in grief. ⁴³Whoever keeps my word and walks in my commandment — he is the one who shall receive my blessing, and shall be honored before me. ⁴⁴Whoever keeps my word and does my commandment shall eat the blessing of the earth; he shall enter to where the good and upright kings have gone, and there he shall dwell.”

Chapter 13

¹“In the time when I take hold of them in my wrath they shall be humbled; they shall be scourged. To Tyre and Sidon who today exalt themselves, and to all the districts of the land of Judah — woe to them! ²For God said: ‘A son of destruction, arrogant and proud, the enemy of righteousness — one who stiffens his neck, who boasts and does not know his Creator — shall come forth from among them; and I, God who rules all, have made him the likeness of my wrath, that I may show forth my power against him.’ ³This Capernaum, Samaria and Galilee, Syria and Damascus, Cyprus and Achaia, and all the heathen of the district of the Jordan — these are a people who have stiffened their necks, who walk in their custom, whom the shadow of death and darkness has covered; for the Devil has covered their mind, and they submit to that arrogant one; they do not turn back to the fear of God. ⁴To those who submit to the impure, and to those who sacrifice in their name — woe to them at that time! For they have denied God their Creator; they are like beasts without understanding. For that godless son of destruction in every place will set up his image. In the work of his hand and the desire of his heart, in plunder and every sin, in deceit and transgression, in plunder and every fornication a man works, in lying speech — he is glad. ⁵Since it has been counted before God that he should do this, it is made known in his time that he shall do so. ⁶The sun shall darken; the moon shall become blood; the stars shall fall from heaven; according to the work of the hands of those who dwell in it, that earth and all that is in it may pass away by the sign which shall come in the latter days. All his work shall perish; ⁷For God has glory over the creation he created; in one hour, as he wills, he has done it; and the last enemy, death, he shall abolish. ⁸For God who rules all has said, ‘I will avenge’; and after that there is no rule [for the enemy]. ⁹And in the day when he is taken hold of in my wrath, he shall descend to the scourging and judgment that have been kept ready for him; he shall draw with him into destruction, affliction, and denial all those who are with him. For I am the one who brings forth from and brings into the judgment of Gehenna. ¹⁰Let not the mighty boast in his strength; for he gives firmness and strength to weary men; and again, to mighty and strong men he gives weariness. ¹¹He is God who rules; and against those who do violence — judging from the hand of those who oppress them, he saves; he repays the vengeance of widows and orphans. ¹²To you, woman, who boast and stiffen your neck, woe to you. It seems to you that I shall not take hold of you in my wrath and avenge myself against you. As it was said in this manner: ‘How is the dawn-star, which rises in the morning, fallen from heaven? ¹³In his arrogance and his pride: I will spread my throne in the heavens and above the stars; I will be like the Most High.’ [Isa 14:12–14] ¹⁴So you also have dared in your arrogance to speak; and you have not remembered God who created you and made you with his hand. By the firmness of your mind to descend to Gehenna — why have you exalted yourself? ¹⁵You have been humbled with all angels who are like you in your arrogance; for they in lowliness of heart praise their Creator, and do not go out from his commandment; for they have known that he is the one who created them and made them; they have kept their mind that they should not go out from his commandment or transgress. ¹⁶But you in the arrogance of your mind have done evil; you have become separated from your companions and humbled. For sinners and those of your nature who, like you, deny — those godless ones in whose dwelling is sin and iniquity, deceit and plunder — you are their keeper; you teach them wickedness; they go in your desire and your commandment. ¹⁷You and those whom you have led astray by your cunning shall descend together to Gehenna — woe to you. ¹⁸You children of God led astray by that misleading criminal — woe to you! For he and his demons taught you, and like him you have erred. To the scourging from which there is no exit forever, you shall descend together. ¹⁹At the beginning, while my servant Moses was yet alive — at Horeb and at the water of Meribah, at Mount Sinai and at Amalek — you grieved him. ²⁰Again, when you sent spies to Canaan, and they told you: ‘The way is far; their walls reach to heaven; their fortress is strong; warriors dwell there’ — in your anger, you rebelled against God’s word, that you might return to the land of Egypt where you did the work of hardship. ²¹You did not remember God who saved you from affliction, who in Egypt did great wonders and led you by the hand of his angel. By day a cloud shielded you that the sun might not burn you; and a pillar of fire shone by night so that your foot might not stumble in darkness. ²²When his army and Pharaoh terrified you, you cried out utterly to Moses; and Moses cried out utterly to God; and he kept you by his angel that you should not meet Pharaoh’s army. ²³But them he turned back into affliction. ‘God alone led them, and there was no other god with them’ [Deut 32:12]. Their enemies he buried at one time in the sea; he left no fugitive of them. ²⁴And Israel he brought across through the midst of the sea on foot; from the Egyptians no evil reached them. He brought them to Mount Sinai; and there for forty years he fed them with manna. ²⁵For the sons of Israel always grieve God; though he had done so much good for them, they neglected to worship God. ²⁶From their childhood till they grew old they kept wickedness in their mind. For the mouth of God in the book of the generations of the fathers spoke thus: ‘The mind of the sons of Adam is ash; all their work is running to plunder and to wickedness; among them there is none who loves a straight work — except gathering with violence the wealth of others, swearing falsely, killing one’s neighbor, plundering and stealing. ²⁷All in their lifetime go to this wickedness.’” And the sons of Israel who have broken God’s commandment, from the beginning to the end utterly grieved God.

Chapter 14

¹And God baptized the earth with the water of the flood when he had punished the former peoples for the sin of the sons of Cain; he cleansed it of all the sin of the sons of Cain. ²“I am grieved that I have created man,” he said, and destroyed all the transgressors. Except for eight people he left none; all he destroyed. After this he multiplied them; he filled the earth; and they divided the inheritance of their father Adam. ³But Noah made a covenant with God — that God would not destroy the earth again with the water of destruction; and the children of Noah, that they should not eat that which has died or rotted, should not worship any other gods besides God who created them, that he should be their God, that he should not destroy them once again in vain, that he should not withhold from them the rains of summer-rain and the latter-rain, that he should give in their seasons food for cattle and for men, that he should give them grass and grain-fruit and plant — that they should make their work pleasing to God in all he loves — they made a covenant. ⁴After he had given them this ordinance, the sons of Israel grieved God by their wickedness; they did not walk as their fathers — as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob — who did not break the law of God their Creator. ⁵From the least to the greatest, those sons of Israel who did not keep the law of God were perverted in their work. ⁶Their priests and their chiefs and their scribes — all of them — break God’s law. ⁷They did not stand firm in the law and ordinance of God which Moses, in the book of the law, commanded them, saying: “Love God your Creator with all your heart and all your soul. ⁸Love your neighbor as yourself. Do not worship other gods. Do not go to a young man’s wife. Do not kill. Do not steal. ⁹Do not bear false witness. Do not desire your neighbor’s possessions — anything your brother has bought, his donkey or his ox.” ¹⁰But after he had commanded them all this, those wicked sons of Israel turn again to sin and denial, to transgression and plunder, to the young man’s wife and to stealing, to lying and to worshiping idols. ¹¹The sons of Israel grieved God at Horeb by making the idol of a calf that goes out to grass; “Behold, these are our gods who brought us out of Egypt,” they said, and bowed down. ¹²They rejoiced in the work of their hand; they ate, drank, were filled, and rose up to dance. ¹³Therefore God said to him: “Your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, have sinned and gone astray; they have made the image of a calf and bowed down to the idol.” And Moses came down from Mount Sinai in anger. ¹⁴Moses came down, raging against his people, with his attendant Joshua; and when Joshua heard, he said: “Behold, I hear the sound of warriors in the camp of Israel.” ¹⁵And Moses said to Joshua: “It is not the sound of warriors but the sound of unfermented wine.” Coming down, he broke their image; he ground it utterly to dust; and the sons of Israel he made drink in the water near the mountain. [cf. Ex 32:17–20] ¹⁶After this, because they had done evil before God, he commanded the Levites to slay one another. ¹⁷Knowing that to contend with God exceeds killing oneself and one’s kin and fathers, they did as he commanded. ¹⁸Therefore Moses said to them: “Because you have grieved God who fed you and cared for you and brought you out of the house of subjection — God who gave you the inheritance he swore to your fathers, to give to them and to their children after them — in your own hand you have made God pleased.” ¹⁹Yet from that point onward they go to sin and evil; they did not leave off grieving God. ²⁰From their childhood through their youth to their old age — they are not like their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who pleased God by their good works; that God should give them what is upon the earth and what in heaven he has prepared for those who love him — the milk-and-honey-flowing land of inheritance, and in the world to come the Paradise of joy prepared for the righteous — what eye has not seen, what ear has not heard, what has not entered the mind of man — which God has prepared for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and for those who love him and please him in their lifetime as their fathers did. ²¹But the children of those, deniers and wicked, living in the desire of their mind, have not heard the word of God who fed them and cared for them and kept them from their childhood. ²²They did not remember God who brought them out of the land of Egypt and saved them from brick-making and bitter subjection. ²³But they grieved him utterly; therefore he raised against them the heathen who were around them; and they, rising in enmity, made them tributary as they pleased.

Chapter 15

¹At that time, the men of Midian rose in enmity against them; they raised their armies to attack Israel. The name of their king was Akrandyos; he gathered the great armies of Syria and Cilicia and Damascus in the morning. ²He encamped beyond the Jordan and sent messengers to Israel, saying: “Pay me tribute. Otherwise, I have come to punish you, to plunder your cattle, to take all your possessions, to lead your children away captive. ³I will lead you captive to a land you do not know; there I will make you water-carriers and wood-gatherers. ⁴As for your saying, ‘We are God’s people; none can overcome us’ — do not be confident. Is it not the case that God has sent me to destroy you, that I should plunder your wealth? He sent me, that I might gather all that is yours. ⁵Other peoples whom I have punished — have their strange idols saved them? I plundered their wealth and provision; them I killed; their children I led captive. ⁶In just the same way, if you do not bring me tribute as I have commanded, I will do to you as I did to them.” And he crossed the Jordan to plunder their cattle and their wealth, and to lead away their wives and children captive. ⁷After this, the sons of Israel wept a bitter weeping to God; they cried out utterly; but they had none to help them. ⁸Therefore God gave firmness to three brothers; their names are these: Mebkyus, Maqabis, and Yehuda. Of fair appearance, they were warriors in all their strength. ⁹When the sons of Israel were heard weeping utterly, the cry of all the sons of Israel grieved their hearts; widows and orphans, their priests and their princes, all the people of Israel, women and boys — all were strewing ashes on their heads and weeping; their nobles were clothed in sackcloth. ¹⁰But those fair-of-form and comely brothers agreed to go and save them. “Let us go,” they took counsel together, “and give our bodies to death for the sake of these people.” ¹¹Saying to each other, “Be of good courage! Be of good courage!” — girding their swords on their loins, taking their spears in their hands — they went; prepared to do battle with the warrior-king, they went. ¹²They came upon him while he was seated at table; and Mebkyus struck the warrior — that he might not swallow what he had not chewed, with one stroke he cut off his neck. And Yehuda and Maqabis struck with the sword those who were at the king’s right and left. ¹³And when their king had fallen, all fled; their spears entered into the breasts of their companions; their bows shattered; they were defeated. ¹⁴But those fair-of-form, comely brothers were saved; nothing evil came upon them. For God had turned his scourging back upon them [the enemies]; and those wicked ones slew one another. ¹⁵They were defeated and died. Until they had crossed the Jordan they cast aside all their wealth; everything that was theirs was left behind. And when the sons of Israel saw them fleeing and going to their camp, they took the plundered wealth for themselves. ¹⁶So God by the hand of Mebkyus and his brothers thus saved the sons of Israel. ¹⁷And the sons of Israel lived a few months pleasing God. ¹⁸But after that, they returned again to their wickedness; the sons of Israel neglected to worship God as was fitting. ¹⁹And he again grieved them by peoples they did not know — who gathered the harvest of their field, who destroyed the planting of their vine, who plundered their flock and slaughtered their cattle before them without sharing them, ²⁰who led away captive their wives, their sons, and their daughters. Because they always grieve God — for they are the people who have broken his law — they crush their children’s heads before their faces; and they cannot save them.

Chapter 16

¹The people of Tyre and Sidon, dwelling on the seashore and across the Jordan river — in Gilead and Karan, in Canaan and Jebus, in the Girgashite and Edom — and the people of Amalek; ²all the heathen in their countries and their tribes, in their ordinances and their districts, in the languages of their lands — all dwell as God has set them. ³Of them, there are those whose work is good and who know God. ⁴Of them, there are those whose work is evil, who do not know God who created them; and according to their work, he gave them into the hand of the king of Syria, Amenezer; ⁵for he shall take the wealth of Damascus, and shall divide the plunder of Samaria before the king of Egypt. ⁶The mountains of Gilead and the valleys of Galaboh, Samaria, and all of Pontus in the land of Judah; those who dwell in Arabia, in Media and Parthia, in Seleucia, and in the mountains of Cappadocia — ⁷those who dwell in their districts, who do not know God and do not keep his commandment — these are a stiff-necked people. ⁸And he will repay them according to the wickedness of their work and the work of their hand. ⁹The district of Caesarea, the people of Gilead and of Amalek — they have agreed together to destroy the city of God which is full of righteousness, in which dwells the Holy One of Israel, who sits upon the chariot of cherubim, before whom stand the exceedingly many angels — the city in which the Lord of hosts is praised.

Chapter 17

¹The armies of Edom and Amalek do not worship God, whose hand holds the rule of heaven and earth. They are criminals who do not walk in truth; therefore they do not fear to tread the temple [of God]. ²Apart from fornication and shedding of blood, eating animals struck by a paw or which have died of themselves and all such things — they have no fear of God before them. These are despised and defiled. ³They have no faith and no good conduct; they hate good works; they do not know God. Apart from wickedness and plunder, defiled work and uproar of every kind — apart from songs and games as their father Sebelyanos taught them — they do not know the way of peace. ⁴For he rules them with his demons; he teaches each of them every evil work — wickedness and plunder, snatching another’s wealth by force, theft, eating carrion and that which has been struck, and fornication. ⁵And everything that resembles it — going to a young man’s wife, shedding blood, eating what is sacrificed to idols and what has died, killing the souls of men by violence, mocking and envy, greed, and every evil work that God does not love — he teaches them this teaching. To draw them far from the way of God who holds the whole world — their enemy Sebelyanos brings it upon them. ⁶But the way of God is humility and meekness, loving the neighbor and not provoking the brother, mutual affection with every person, and peace. ⁷Do not be those who show partiality to a man’s face; plunderers and rebels, snatchers, those who go to a young man’s wife, those who do violence and evil to their neighbor, those who deceive in order to wrong their neighbor in iniquity. ⁸They point fingers; they shake themselves; they devise wickedness; they cast lots to lead men astray, that they may descend to eternal judgment.

Chapter 18

¹Remember that you are going to God; all is in his hand; you shall stand before him so that he may judge you according to the work you have done. ²In times past too there were the wicked and arrogant, those than whom none was greater or stronger — the sons of Re’ayt; thus they were. Because they saw their own strength and stature and the might of their arm, they did not set God before them; they did not know that he is their Creator who brought them out of non-existence. ³And their fathers, while they were angels, used to praise God in heaven with the angels. But when their will led them astray, they descended to the eternal punishment of judgment. ⁴They took wives from among the daughters of men; for God had created human flesh for them that he might test them — to test whether they would keep the law and commandment despite the arrogance of their mind. ⁵But they did not keep the commandment; and he brought them down with their father the Devil to the Gehenna of fire; for God was angry with the angels who transgressed as men do; because of them the days of man have grown shorter. ⁶And the sons of Adam they took with them; with their punishment they brought them down to Sheol. ⁷Because the angels erred through the sons of Cain, the days of man have been shortened; whereas in the beginning the days of man were nine hundred, they were reduced to one hundred and twenty years. ⁸And God said: “They are flesh and blood; my Spirit shall not abide upon them.” [Gen 6:3] ⁹Therefore our days have been shortened; furthermore, because of our transgression and our sin, our days are fewer than those of our former fathers, and there are some who die in childhood. ¹⁰But the days of our fathers were many, because they kept his commandment and did not grieve God. ¹¹They rebuked their daughters that they might teach them; they rebuked their sons that they might not transgress God’s commandment. ¹²Therefore, together with their sons and daughters, because they did not break God’s commandment, their days were truly many.

Chapter 19

¹When the sons of Cain multiplied, they made lyre and tambourine, harp and cymbal, games and song of every kind. ²Furthermore — because she was beautiful, on account of whom the righteous Abel was killed — from his wife (whom Cain married after killing her husband) beautiful and comely daughters were born to Cain; for after killing his brother, he took her [as wife]; and she was his. ³Taking them with him, he separated from his father and went westward to the valleys of Qefaz; and the children of that beautiful woman were beautiful like their mother. ⁴Therefore the angels descended to the sons of Cain; they did not delay even an hour; they took for themselves as wives whomever they chose. ⁵Therefore — because of their error, since they led us into error together with them — God was angry with us also and with them. ⁶And the Devil, deceiving with the words “You shall become as gods, like God your Creator,” led our father Adam and our mother Eve into his error. ⁷They in their ignorance — it seemed true to them — broke the commandment of their Creator who brought them from non-existence into existence, that they might bow down and praise his holy name. ⁸Those who took the wealth of God for themselves — their Lord humbled them; and that arrogant one also he humbled. ⁹As David said, “In a sinner’s arrogance the poor is set on fire” [cf. Ps 10:2 LXX] — for our father Adam by the Devil’s arrogance was judged in truth before his Creator God. ¹⁰Likewise, by the sons of Cain the angels who erred took us into their error. Therefore the days God has given us are fewer than the days of our fathers. ¹¹But they had done good works; no evil approached them; for they had set their hearts firm on God; and they taught their sons and daughters not to deviate from the commandment of God which had been taught to them. ¹²But they — even if they had done good works — if they had not told their children and taught them, it would not have benefited them. ¹³As David said: “They did not hide from their children for another generation; they taught God’s glory, his power and wonders that he had done; that, as they remembered, they should teach their children; that they should pay attention and do; that they should commit God’s judgment as a trust to them; that by their moral conduct they should please God; that as their fathers had, they should keep his commandment. [Ps 78:4–7] ¹⁴In their childhood, fearing God and his judgment as they learned from their fathers, the commandment which their fathers committed to them as a trust they did not abandon. ¹⁵And their children — that they might make their conduct beautiful, and give honor to their Creator — learned from their fathers; for they kept his law and loved him. ¹⁶And he hears their prayer; he does not disregard their petition; for he is the forgiver. ¹⁷He multiplies the turning back of his wrath; in all his scourging he did not destroy.” [Ps 78:38]

Chapter 20

¹Our brothers, take thought! Do not forget what they told you of old: that God preserves the righteousness of those who do good works. ²Upon the earth he multiplies their fruit; the calling of their name endures for good unto eternity; and their seed shall not lack grain upon the earth. ³For he contends for them; he does not give them into the hand of their enemy; from the hand of their adversaries and from all their enemies who hate them, he saves them. ⁴And to those who love his name, he is a helper in their time of affliction; he keeps them; he forgives all their sins.

Chapter 21

¹David trusted in God; because he had believed in him, [God] became his refuge; and from the hand of King Saul he saved him. ²When his son Absalom rose up; when the Philistines rose up; when the Amalekites and Edomites and Karniyonites rose up — because he had trusted in him and kept his law, God saved David from all the enemies who opposed him. ³But the wicked kings who did not trust in him — God did not save; for victory is from God; in the hand of their enemies they were defeated. ⁴Hezekiah trusted in God; and from the hand of the arrogant Assyrian he saved him. ⁵But his son Manasseh did not put his trust in God; in the hand of his enemy he was defeated. Those enemies of his who defeated Manasseh were not like him; because he had not put his trust in God, and because he did not fear God who had honored and made him great — they bound him and led him to their country instead. ⁶Because he had not made his way pleasing to his Creator God — that his days might be multiplied, that his enemy might contend on his behalf, that God might be strength and firmness for him before and after — [God] withheld from him the wealth he had given. ⁷For it is better to trust in God than to trust in many armies and horses, in bow and shield. ⁸And the man who trusts in him shall live; he shall be honored; he shall be utterly exalted. ⁹God shows no partiality of face. Those who do not trust in God and trust in the abundance of their wealth — they shall be cast out from the grace and honor he gave them. ¹⁰But those who trust in him he keeps. Those whom others call ignorant, he makes ignorant — because they have not steeled their hearts to follow God and keep his law; in their time of affliction, and when their enemies oppose them, he does not help them speedily. ¹¹But for the one who steels his heart in following God, in keeping his commandment and his law — for him he becomes a refuge in time of affliction. ¹²By killing his enemy and capturing his enemy’s cattle, by capturing his enemy’s countrymen, by raining seasonable rains, by the fruit of the bud, by the gathering of the heap, by the fruit of his planted place, ¹³by the fruit of summer-rain and winter-rain, by giving grass and freshness, by giving various fruits that those under his hand may be made glad — [God] makes him glad. ¹⁴That they may eat the labor of others, that they may be filled with the plunder of their enemies, that they may plunder beasts, sheep, and cows, that they may eat and clothe themselves from another’s table, that they may take captive their enemies’ children — [God] makes them glad. ¹⁵And God does all this for the one he loves; but the one he hates, he makes prey for his enemy. ¹⁶He binds his hands and his feet; he casts him into his enemy’s hand; he makes him a mockery for his enemies. For the one who has broken God’s law has become a shedder of blood; therefore [God] is not pleased with the seed of his house. ¹⁷And at the time of judgment he does not stand firm. When [God] repays evil to evildoers, he repays the doers of wickedness with the fruit of their work. ¹⁸But to those who do good, he repays good; and it has been ordained from God that he should keep them by [the work of his own] hand. ¹⁹And [man] was ordained to keep his commandment, to do his will, to praise God his Creator. For he is the servant over all his creation; for of all fleshly creatures, only man transgresses his Creator’s commandment. ²⁰All [other creatures] know him; and all who live according to their order are kept by his commandment and his law as he has commanded them. ²¹But man dares against God who has set him over the beasts and the cattle and the birds and all his creation. ²²God gave to our father Adam all the creation he had created — whether what is in the sea or what is on the dry land. To do what he willed, that he might eat them on earth like grain, that he might rule them and put them to work, that beasts and cattle alike might obey man — God gave them; and that the kings of men might obey God who gave them honor, that they might bow and obey him — over all his creation he appointed them. ²³But if they go out from his law, he separates them from the wealth he gave them; for he rules heaven and earth, and to the one who does his will, he gives it. ²⁴Whom he wills, he appoints; and whom he wills, he removes. He kills and saves; he scourges and forgives. ²⁵There is no other like him; for he is Lord of all the creation he created, and there is none who finds fault with him. In heaven above, on earth beneath, there is no other God besides him. ²⁶He appoints and removes; he kills and saves; he scourges and forgives; he impoverishes and enriches. ²⁷He receives the petition of those who petition him; the prayer of those who do his will with a pure heart, he hears; he does their will in all that they have asked. ²⁸Great and small he makes obey them; in the mountains and hills, in the caves and forests, in the pit of the earth, in sea and land — all that is in them is theirs. ²⁹To those who do the will of their God, all is theirs; from his blessing he does not deprive them; the wages of their praise he gives them. ³⁰And in heaven, to their fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to David and Hezekiah, to Samuel — those who did not go out from his law and his commandment — he gives the honor he has prepared; ³¹that he may give them the inheritance he swore to their fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob from of old, who served him; and that they may be made glad in his kingdom.

Chapter 22

¹Take thought of the names of those who do good works; do not forget their work. ²Strive that your name may be as their names — that in the light-dwelling he has prepared for the good kings and princes who did the will of God, you may be glad with them. ³Furthermore — know and understand the names of the evil kings and princes who shall be judged, and who shall be reckoned to shame even among men after their death. ⁴For though seeing and hearing, they did not make their way pleasing to God; they shall be judged together with the godless and the deniers who did God’s will [outwardly only]. ⁵As for you — be gracious and meek and upright; do not walk in the path of the godless with whom God is angry. ⁶Judge truly; vindicate the widow and the orphan; save them from the hand of the sinners who plunder them. ⁷Stand for the orphan as a father, that you may save him from the hand of the plunderer. Be terrified when the orphan’s tears fall before your face — that you may not be terrified by the sea of fire in which unrepentant sinners shall sit. ⁸Direct your foot toward the way of peace; seek peace and follow her. For the eyes of God are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their petition. ⁹But God’s face is against those who do evil — that he may destroy their memorial from the earth; and no man hiding on mountain or rampart he leaves behind. ¹⁰“Until I have destroyed those who do not keep my word, I will not turn back my face. For I, the LORD, am a jealous one who avenges those who hate me and do not keep my word. ¹¹And those who honor me and keep my word, I will honor.”

Chapter 23

¹Do not walk in the way of Cain — who killed his brother, who in meekness had followed him, trusting that he loved him. ²He killed his brother out of jealousy over a woman. Those who work iniquity and jealousy and denial against their neighbor are like him. ³They went in the way of Cain — not in the way of meek Abel; for Abel was meek as a sheep, and his blood, in the purity of his heart, was as the blood of an innocent lamb sacrificed to God. But those who go in the way of meek Abel love God. ⁴As Abel was meek, so God loves everyone who walks in meekness — as the righteous and meek Abel. ⁵But the wicked God disregards; their judgment awaits them on their neck; on their shoulder it is written. At the time of judgment, before the angels and men and all his creation, it shall be read out. ⁶Then the deniers and rebels who have not done God’s will shall be ashamed. ⁷And a dreadful word shall be given to them: “Cast them into the fire of Gehenna which has no exit forever.”

Chapter 24

¹When Gideon trusted in God, with a small army he defeated the uncircumcised heathen army — a great host, like locusts beyond counting. ²“Kings and princes! There is no other God besides me; do not trust in other gods. ³I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of your mother’s womb, who raised you, who fed you, who clothed you. Why do you grieve me? Why do you worship another god besides me? ⁴All this I did for you; and what did you give me? What do I seek from you? Nothing but the salvation of your souls — that you may walk in my law and ordinance, in my commandment; and that I might give you the salvation of your souls. ⁵God who rules all has said: ‘Save yourselves from idol and from divination and from sorcery.’ ⁶Upon those who do this and those who hear them, upon those who do their will and become their friends, upon those who walk in their commandments — God’s scourge shall come. ⁷For peoples whom you do not know and who do not pity you shall rise against you. If you do not do the will of God your Creator — as the prophets said, from the prophet Samuel onward; as Ezekiel and Enoch and Asaph spoke — they shall eat the fruit of your labor. ⁸And he said: ‘Evil men will come, changing their clothes. Apart from eating and drinking, apart from adorning themselves with silver and gold, apart from doing every work God does not love — they have no other law. ⁹They are prepared to go to food and drink; from the time they rise from their sleep, from morning till evening they run to evil work. In their path is wretchedness and destruction; their feet have no way of peace. ¹⁰They do not know the way of peace; before their eyes there is no fear of God; without faith and conduct, they are perverse and wicked — greedy, gluttonous and drunken, intoxicated, and their iniquity is lawless. To licentiousness and shedding of blood, to theft and denial, to plundering another’s wealth by violence — they go. ¹¹They condemn without judgment and without law; for they do not fear God who created them; therefore there is no shame before them. ¹²They do not respect the faces of those they see; they do not respect grey-haired and elders. When they hear of the wealth of the world, before they have seen it with their eyes they make it their own; for before their eyes there is no fear of God, and when they see it with their eyes, it is as if they had eaten it with their mouth. ¹³And their princes consume entrusted wealth. For they are deniers, and there is no truth in their mouth — what they said in the morning, they do not repeat in the evening. ¹⁴They neglect the cry of the poor and the hungry; they do not save the foreigner from the hand of those who plunder them; their disturbing kings hasten to wickedness. ¹⁵Therefore — let kings save the oppressed and the foreigner; let them not be those who deny justice.’” ¹⁶But they are criminals who exact tribute and drink blood; their way is evil; they have no pity when they eat the calf with its mother or the bird with its chicks; all they see and hear they make their own. ¹⁷They love to gather for themselves; they do not pity the sick and the poor; in violence they snatch another’s wealth; that they may stuff themselves in their house and be glad in it, they gather all they find. ¹⁸Like one who has come up from a pit and his trace cannot be found, like one who does not return to his house, like swift ash they shall perish. Because in their lifetime they did no good works, when God seizes them in his anger — woe to their soul. ¹⁹When God disregards them, as they are by themselves they perish at once; for God endures them [in patience] in case they should turn in repentance — for he does not hasten to destroy; in their own time they perish. ²⁰But if they do not turn in repentance, like the ancients before them who did not properly keep God’s commandment, he destroys them. ²¹They eat human flesh and drink human blood. Going to sin they gird themselves with violence; before them there is always no fear of God; from the moment they rise from their bed they do not rest from working iniquity. ²²Upon the earth, that they may destroy the lives of many — their work is eating and drinking, running to wickedness and destruction.

Chapter 25

¹“Their way is perverse; for all go on the misleading way of Satan; therefore the LORD of all says: ‘In the time when I take hold of her in my wrath, woe to her body.’ ²They do not know God’s way; they have turned it behind them; they have despised my law. ³And I, in the latter time of fulfillment, will repay them according to the wickedness of their work. At the time of judgment, as the wickedness of their work is written before me, I will avenge myself; for I am the LORD who kills and saves, who scourges and forgives — they cannot escape from my hand. ⁴For I, the LORD, fill from horizon to horizon; all creation is in my hand. Below the earth and above the heaven, in the sea and in the deeps of the waters — there is none who escapes from my hand. ⁵Below the earth I command the serpent; in the sea, the fish; in the air, the birds; in the wilderness, the wild ass. From horizon to horizon all is mine. ⁶For it is I who work wonders and signs before me; in heaven above and on earth beneath, none escapes my hand. There is none who says to me, ‘Where will you go? What will you do?’ ⁷I command the archangels and the host; every name that is called is mine; the birds of heaven, the wild beasts of the forest, all the cattle — all are mine. ⁸The south wind and the summer-heat rise up; the Red Sea, in the latter days, shall be parted because of the splendor coming upon it. ⁹For he rules the living and the dead, from Noba and Saba, from Ethiopia and Hindekē, with all their districts and borders. ¹⁰With the rod that is in his hand, in meekness he keeps all; his rod is greater than all rods; with his rod he keeps his sheep. ¹¹His horn is greater than all horns; his kingdom is exalted above all kingdoms; his authority rules the whole world; he is all-powerful; nothing is impossible for him. ¹²Above, he commands the clouds; below, he sprouts grass for the cattle; upon his shoots he gives fruit. ¹³As he wills, he feeds all according to their kinds; with their own food he feeds all he created — below the earth for the ant and the kubkuba (mole?), above the earth for the wild beasts and the cattle. To him who prays he gives [the answer to] his prayer; the petition of widows and orphans he does not disregard. ¹⁴Rather, in every time, the prayer of the pure ones who pray to him he receives. For the iniquity of evil men is as gathered wind, and the assembly of the wicked as mist. ¹⁵Their joy is as a fleeing bird; the comeliness of their countenance, of silver and gold, perishes on earth — it is a sham for the godless. Their gold does not profit them; the moth eats their garments. ¹⁶The heap of grain and wheat is eaten by worm and weevil; all passes like the day that passed yesterday; as a word that has gone out from the mouth does not return, so is the wealth of sinners. Their fine living is a passing shadow; the wealth of sinners before God is like a borrowed garment. ¹⁷But the righteous, even if they prosper, God does not disregard. Having mercy on the poor, hearing the judgment of orphans and the needy, clothing the naked from their own garments, not withholding from foreigner and hungry from the household wealth God has given them — they have grown rich [for this purpose]. ¹⁸They do not pervert the judgment of the illiterate; they do not delay the wage of the hired servant. For the word of God, like a two-edged sword, is true and honored — in the count of months and in the measure of weights, they do not do iniquity.”

Chapter 26

¹“But the poor again take thought in their beds; if the rich do not receive them, they become like dry wood without freshness; without moisture the root does not flourish; and without root the leaf does not flourish. ²For the leaf serves to adorn the fruit; if the leaf does not flourish, it bears no fruit. The head of a man is the fruit of righteousness; that which has no fruit has no good work. ³If he does righteousness, he bears uprightness; and God is pleased with the man who works truth and uprightness. ⁴To him who prays, he gives [the answer to] his prayer and the reward of his mouth; and the righteous he does not wrong on account of the righteousness he has done. ⁵For God is righteous, and he loves righteousness; the sinner he does not justify without repentance for the evil work he has done. The soul of every man is held in his hand; and he rules heaven and earth; in judgment he shows no partiality to rich or to poor.”

Chapter 27

¹He created the whole world from non-existence; he prepared the mountains and the hills utterly; he established the earth upon water. That it might not be shaken, he bounded it with sand. For at the beginning, God’s word said: “Let there be light.” ²The world being in darkness, light came to be; and God did his work; in fitness and proportion he prepared and established the world; he said: “Let there be evening and darkness”; and evening and darkness came to be. ³And again God said: “Let there be light.” It dawned; and light came to be. The upper water he lifted up to heaven. ⁴Like a tent he stretched it out; with wind he established it; the lower water he set under the deep of the sea. ⁵The lock of the sea he shut with sand; that they should not sink down he established them with his Spirit; in it he placed the wild beasts and the cattle, and the great creatures; he placed in it the countless ones, the seen and unseen. ⁶On the third day God created upon the earth the plants, all the grass, the trees, and the fruits that bear each according to its kind — ⁷beautiful to behold and sweet to eat. He created the tree of life, and grass, and every plant whose seed is within it. For cattle and wild beasts and birds he created food; for all that he had created, he gave food. ⁸Evening came; morning came; on the fourth day God said: “Let there be light in the firmament of heaven.” And God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. That they might shine upon the earth, and feed day and night, he set them in the firmament of heaven. ⁹After this the sun, moon, and stars, day and night, took their turns. ¹⁰On the fifth day God created all the wild beasts and animals that dwell in the water, all the birds that fly in heaven, the seen and the unseen — all this God created. ¹¹On the sixth day he created beasts and cattle and worms; and having created and prepared all, he created Adam in his image and his likeness. ¹²He gave him to reign over the beasts and the cattle he had created; furthermore, he gave him the cattle and beasts, the fish, and the leviathans of the sea. ¹³All the cows on earth, the sheep, every animal seen and unseen, he gave him. ¹⁴And Adam, whom he had created in his image and likeness, he set in Paradise. To eat, to tend the Garden, there to praise God — he commanded him. ¹⁵That he should not break God’s commandment, he commanded him not to eat from the tree which brings death, which makes known evil and good. ¹⁶For he said: “When you eat from that tree, you shall surely die.” ¹⁷Our mother Eve, deceived by the serpent’s deception, ate from that tree of the fig; and she gave it to our father Adam. ¹⁸And he ate from that tree; and upon himself and his children he brought death. ¹⁹For he broke his commandment; because he had eaten from that tree from which God had commanded him not to eat — God was angry with our father Adam; he drove him out of Paradise and sent him forth. That he might till her — and with the sweat of his face eat the wages of his labor — when he broke his commandment, God gave him the very earth which was cursed on his account, which brings forth thistle and thorn. ²⁰And when God brought him out into this earth, Adam returned to sorrow and to the brooding of the heart. To till the earth, in the sweat of his face, in toil and labor, he began to eat.

Chapter 28

¹After this his children multiplied. Of them, there were those who praised God and honored him, who did not break his commandment. ²There were prophets who spoke what was and what was to be. Of his children there were also sinners who spoke falsehood and wronged men. Cain, Adam’s firstborn, became evil; he killed his brother Abel. ³Because he had killed his brother Abel, God was greatly angry with Cain; and because she had drunk his blood, God was angry with the earth. ⁴And God said to Cain: “Where is your brother Abel?” And Cain, in the pride of his heart, said: “Am I my brother Abel’s keeper?” ⁵Abel was righteous; but Cain, by killing the good man Abel his brother, became a sinner. ⁶Furthermore, a righteous Seth was born; for Adam had begotten thirty daughters and thirty sons. Of them there were the good; and there were the wicked. ⁷Of them, there were prophets and righteous ones; of them, there were sinners and deceivers. ⁸Of them, there were the good and blessed who fulfilled their father Adam’s will; from Adam onward — down to the righteous Noah who kept God’s commandment — they fulfilled all that he had told his son Seth. ⁹And he [Noah] caused his sons to keep God’s law; and as their father Noah had told them, he charged them: that they too should tell their children, and that they should keep God’s law. ¹⁰And they, after them, lived teaching their children. ¹¹But Satan, when he had brought their fathers to the grave, dwelt in the idols that bore their images, and lived inflicting [harm] and speaking to people who consented to him; and they did all that the wicked teacher commanded. ¹²They lived worshiping idols according to their custom until righteous Abraham — who fulfilled God’s will — arose. ¹³And God made a covenant with him with fire and whirlwind. For he had first separated himself from his kindred, walking in the way of righteousness. ¹⁴And God swore to him and to his children to give them the land of inheritance forever. ¹⁵Likewise, to Isaac he swore to give him the inheritance of his father Abraham; and to Jacob likewise, to give him the inheritance of his father Isaac. ¹⁶After them, their seed — Jacob’s sons of the twelve tribes of Israel — he made into kings and priests; he blessed them. “Be many, even of many,” he said. ¹⁷And the inheritance of their fathers he gave them. But while he was feeding them, while he was loving them in all things — they did not leave off grieving God. ¹⁸When he destroyed them, at that time they sought him; turning back, they ran to God; and God, because he loved them, forgave them. ¹⁹Not for their own sake, but for their fathers’ sake; for he is merciful and forgiving to all he created. ²⁰That he may satisfy the hungry body, he stretches forth his right hand with blessing; that he may multiply grain for food, he opens his eye in mercy. ²¹To the raven’s chicks and to all that call upon him, he gives food. When they cry to him, he saves the sons of Israel from the hand of their enemies. ²²But they return to grieve him; therefore he sends the heathen around them; and they destroy them, kill them, take them captive. ²³Again they cry to God in shouting and weeping; and he sends a helper. There was a time he saved by the hand of the prophets. ²⁴There was a time he saved by the hand of the judges. And when they grieved God, their enemies subjugated them and led them captive. ²⁵David arose and saved them from the hand of the Philistines. Again they grieved God; and he raised against them those who troubled them. ²⁶There was a time he saved by the hand of Jephthah; and again they forgot God who had saved them. Because God had brought their recompense upon them, he sends wicked enemies who afflict them and utterly take them captive. ²⁷Again, when they were afflicted, they cried to him; and he saved by the hand of Gideon. Again, by the work of their hand, they grieved God. ²⁸Again he sent against them those who tormented them; turning back, they wept and cried to God. ²⁹Again he saved by the hand of Samson; and they rested a little. From the wickedness they had done before, they arose to grieve God. ³⁰Again he sent against them others who afflicted them. Again they cried to God that he might send them a helper; they wept; and he saved by the hand of Barak and Deborah. ³¹Again, worshiping God, they lived a few years; again they forgot him; in their earlier wickedness they grieved God. ³²And he sent against them others who afflicted them; again he saved them by the hand of Judith; again, after they had remained a few months, they rose to grieve God in their wickedness as before. ³³And he raised against them the heathen who ruled them; and they cried to God; they wept; and by the hand of Matatyu and his sons he saved them at the corner of the house. ³⁴For Aḥimelek, who came to attack the land of Judah, struck the head of the giant [re’aytawi]; and when that giant died, his army was scattered; they fled. The sons of Israel struck them as far as the Jabbok; not one of them was left to flee. ³⁵After this, having remained a little, they rose to grieve God; and he raised against them the heathen who ruled them; and they cried to God; they wept. But because they had always grieved God, and had forgotten his law, God disregarded their cry and their weeping. ³⁶They took them captive with their priests to the land of the Chaldeans. ³⁷There, doing sin and worshiping idols, those deniers — the sons of Israel — did not leave off grieving God; and with the heathen who had taken them captive, they mingled. ³⁸And God in his anger, that he might destroy them at once on account of their sin in that place, put wrath in the mind of King Artaxerxes — that he might not leave their children behind, from India to Ethiopia, in the land of Persia. The king having put a thousand pieces of gold into his treasury, he announced that on a fixed day he would destroy them. ³⁹And he did so: by the king’s permission he wrote a letter of decree, and gave him the seal that was in his hand to convey it to the land of Persia. ⁴⁰As the king commanded, on the one day on which it pleased him to destroy them, he gave him the seal. Their plunder, the gold and silver, was commanded to be brought into the king’s treasury. ⁴¹Then, when the sons of Israel heard this, they cried utterly to God; they wept. They told Mordecai; and Mordecai told Esther. ⁴²And Esther said: “Fast! Pray! All the people of the sons of Israel — wherever you are, cry to God.” ⁴³And Mordecai put on sackcloth; he scattered dust on his head; and the sons of Israel in their land fasted; they prayed; they repented. ⁴⁴Esther wept exceedingly. Though she was queen, she put on sackcloth; she scattered dust; she shaved her head; she did not anoint herself with perfume as the Persian queens are accustomed to do; with deep heart she cried to God the Creator of her fathers; she wept. ⁴⁵Therefore, in the presence of King Artaxerxes of Persia, [God] gave her favor; and for her fathers’ Creator she made a great banquet. ⁴⁶The king and Haman entered the banquet which Esther had prepared. There, what Haman had wished to do against Mordecai — God repaid the recompense to Haman; on a tall tree they hanged him. ⁴⁷That Israel should be left as they wished, that they should not be made tributary, should not be plundered, should not be wronged, and that their property should not be taken from them — the king’s letter was issued. ⁴⁸That their land should not be destroyed, that their cattle should not be taken captive, but that in all the land of Persia they should be loved and honored — the letter was issued. For when in repentance they cried out to him in petition, God forgives Israel in this way. ⁴⁹And when they grieve him, he raises the heathen who afflict them; at that time, that he may send them a helper, that he may save them from the hand of the heathen who oppress them — they weep utterly; they cry out.

Chapter 29

¹And when the men of Egypt afflicted the sons of Israel with hardship — by making them build bricks, in all the work they made them do, by making them tread mud without straw — ²when overseers urging on the workers were appointed and they oppressed them, they cried out to God to save them from making all the brick of Egypt. ³Then he sent them Moses and Aaron to help them. For God had sent them to bring his people out of the dwelling of Pharaoh’s tyranny, the king of Egypt; they saved them from brick-work. For in his arrogance he had refused to send Israel away that they might serve God and offer sacrifice in the wilderness. ⁴And because God disregards the arrogant, on account of his arrogance he drowned Pharaoh together with his army in the Red Sea. ⁵So also with kings and princes — those who disregard God’s word, who do not do his will, who do not give their wages to those who serve in good things, who do not honor his exalted name: all whom he appoints and makes king, those who do not do good — he disregards. ⁶“If they make my kingdom straight, I will make their kingdom straight, says God who is all-powerful. ⁷Do good to me, and I will do good to you; keep my commandment, and I will keep your body. Walk in my commandment, and I will walk according to your mind. ⁸Love me, and I will love your life. Draw near to me, and I will strengthen you. ⁹Trust in me, and I will save you, says God who is all-powerful. ¹⁰Do not walk crosswise. Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you; for I love straight ways, says God who is all-powerful. Sinners and deniers, cleanse your hands; remove the wickedness of your mind; ¹¹and I will remove my wrath from you; in forgiveness and mercy I will return to you. ¹²And I will remove from you the enemies — the criminals who work iniquity — even as I saved my servant David from the great cunning of the enemies who met him: from the hand of the warrior Goliath, from the hand of Saul who sought to kill him, and from the hand of his son Absalom who wished to take his kingdom — ¹³so also those who keep my law and fulfill my will, I will save like him; I will give them honor as their inheritance; in this world and the world to come, I will appoint them over all that they may be made glad.” ¹⁴While he was yet a child, from his childhood God had chosen him for his pleasing way of life — he shall be one with the blessed kings who, in their pleasing way of life, served God; as Samuel did. ¹⁵While he was yet serving in the dwelling of the Lord God, [God] told the prophet Samuel — that he might tell the aged priest Eli, whose work was good. ¹⁶And when he had grown up serving in God’s house, by God’s command [Samuel] appointed his people and anointed their kings. For God had loved that the people he had chosen from the sons of Israel be appointed; and so, when [Samuel] had fulfilled the will of God who had created him, God gave him in his hand the anointing of kingship. ¹⁷And while Saul was in his kingship, God said to the prophet Samuel: “I have loved David the son of Jesse, born of the tribe of Judah; go and anoint him.”

Chapter 30

¹“Because he transgressed my word and grieved me, I hated the house of Saul. ²And I disregarded him; and because again he did not keep my word, I will not make a king from his kindred. ³Likewise, from those who do not keep my word, who do not walk in my law and ordinance — I will withhold my kingdom and my gift from their children unto eternity. ⁴When I exalted them, they did not exalt me; when I honored them, they did not honor me; therefore I shall destroy them and not return to honor them again. ⁵When I did good for them, they did not for me; when I forgave them, they did not forgive on my behalf. ⁶When I made them rulers over all, they did not make me ruler; when I honored them above all, they did not honor me; they did not keep my commandment. ⁷And I have taken from them the gift I gave; in my anger as I have sworn, I will not return it to them. God who is all-powerful says thus: ‘Him who honors me, I will honor; him who loves me, I will love.’ [1 Sam 2:30] ⁸Those who do not honor me and have not kept my law, I will separate from the gift I gave them. ⁹God who is all-powerful says thus: ‘Him who loves me, I will love; him who magnifies me, I will magnify. ¹⁰For I, the LORD, am all-powerful; in heaven above and on earth beneath, there is none who escapes my hand. The one who kills and saves, who scourges and forgives — I am the LORD. ¹¹Honor and majesty are mine; whom I love, I honor; whom I hate, I bring low; for it is I who judge and avenge. ¹²Those who love me and call upon my name always — I am the one who forgives. For the rich and the poor, I am the one who feeds. ¹³Not man alone; but birds and beasts, fish in the sea and wild creatures, even serpents — I feed. ¹⁴Crocodiles and leviathans, shikoko and hippopotami, the swift one — I feed. ¹⁵All that moves in water, all that flies in the air — is mine. ¹⁶In all that is fitting and necessary, I am the one who feeds all who seek me.’”

Chapter 31

¹“Kings do not reign without my will; the hungry-fasters do not become poor without my command; the mighty do not grow strong without my command. ²I gave David favored-status, and to Solomon I gave wisdom; to Hezekiah I added years. ³To Goliath I shortened his days; to Samson I gave strength; again, I made his strength weak. ⁴My servant David I saved from the hand of the giant Goliath. ⁵Furthermore, from the hand of King Saul, and likewise from the hand of another giant who opposed him, and from the hand of all who opposed and hated him — I saved him; for he kept my commandment. ⁶And I loved him. Kings and princes who keep my commandment I love; for they have pleased me, I give them strength and victory over their enemies. ⁷Furthermore, that they may inherit the land of their fathers, the bright and free inheritance which I swore to their fathers, I give them.”

Chapter 32

¹“You also, kings and princes — hear my word; keep my commandment, says God who is all-powerful. Whom I have kept and saved, whom from their parents onward I have raised, whom in all they sought I have fed, ²whom I have brought into the harvest of the land, whom I have fed fittingly with the blessing of the earth — the planting of the vine you did not plant, the fruit of the olive, the cleared well of water you did not dig, ³the comb of honey, the milk of the ewe, the embroidered garment with the fine wheat, and all that is necessary for them I gave: I, the LORD their God — do not grieve me as the sons of Israel grieved me and worshiped other gods. ⁴From those who asked of me, there is none to whom I did not give.”

Chapter 33

¹“Furthermore, as David said — ‘Men ate the bread of angels’ — in the wilderness I fed them with manna; that they might worship me fittingly and in truth, I did all this for them. [Ps 78:25] ²But they did not worship me; and I disregarded them, says God who is all-powerful. They grieved me; they went in a way that was not mine. ³And I will repay them as their work. Because they have disregarded my worship, and have not stood firm in my counsel and my ordinance — as the work of their hand, I disregarded them; to the punishment of Gehenna I will bring them down. ⁴And they did not keep my commandment, and I will be angry with them, and shorten their days on earth. ⁵O king! Are you not a man who dies and decays — tomorrow worm and rotting dust? ⁶But today you boast and exalt yourself as a man who does not die forever. ⁷You are a man who today appears healthy and tomorrow dies, says God who is all-powerful. ⁸But if you keep my commandment and my word, I will give you to inherit a holy city with the honored kings whose dwelling is bright, whose crowns are beautiful, whose thrones are of silver and gold, who upon them are adorned and have done my will. ⁹In the city which is a dwelling-place prepared for those who do good works, you shall be made glad. ¹⁰But those who do wickedness shall not enter that city which the honored kings enter. ¹¹For they have not kept my word and my ordinance, says God who is all-powerful.”

Chapter 34

¹The kingdom of Media shall perish; but the kingdom of Rome shall be utterly established above the kingdom of Macedonia; and the kingdom of Nineveh shall be established above the kingdom of Persia. ²And the kingdom of Ethiopia shall be established above the kingdom of Alexandria; and the kingdom of Moab shall be established above Amalek. ³“Brother shall rise against brother; that they may slaughter one another — as he said, God shall do vengeance.” ⁴And he said: “Kingdom shall rise against kingdom, people against people, country against country. ⁵There shall be strife: war, famine, plague, earthquake, drought; for peace and love shall perish; the scourge of God shall fall upon her. ⁶From east to west as the visible lightning, the dreaded Day of God shall suddenly come; ⁷and at that time every man shall receive according to his work and the labor of his hand, according to the fruit of his work. For God himself has said: ‘On the day of judgment and the day when their foot stumbles, I will avenge myself; for the day on which they are reckoned for destruction has come.’ [Deut 32:35] ⁸At that time, God in eternal condemnation shall destroy those evildoers who do not walk in his law: the people of Judah and Cyprus, of Samaria and Damascus, and of Babylon; ⁹of the western islands, India and Nubia, Sheba and Egypt, and Ethiopia — and all who dwell in them. ¹⁰Then they shall know that I, the LORD — who rule heaven and earth, who give honor and love, who kill and save — am God. ¹¹I am the one who brings forth the sun, and sends it to its entrance; I am the one who brings forth evil and good. ¹²I am the one who brings against you the heathen peoples whom you do not know — who consume the wealth you have labored for, the flock of your cows and your sheep. ¹³They shall lead your children captive, crushing them before your face; you cannot save them. Because the Spirit of God has not abided upon you, because you have not feared the commandment of God which you have heard — they shall consume your sweat and your freshness. ¹⁴As Nebuchadnezzar said to the prophet Daniel — ‘I see the Spirit of God upon you’ — the man on whom the Spirit of God abides knows all things. ¹⁵The man on whom the Spirit of God abides knows all; the hidden is revealed to him; he knows the revealed and the hidden. For nothing is hidden from the Spirit of God. ¹⁶But we are people who shall die tomorrow; all the work we did in hiding shall be revealed. ¹⁷As gold and silver are tested in fire — because they have not kept God’s commandment — so shall sinners be tested in the latter day. ¹⁸At that time also, all the works of the sons of Israel and of all the heathen shall be tested.”

Chapter 35

¹“Because you have not judged true judgment for the orphan whose father and mother have died, God will be angry with you. Woe to you, mighty men of Israel! ²You who morning and evening go to the tavern and become drunk, who pervert justice, who do not hear the judgment of the orphan whose father and mother have died, or the judgment of the widow — who live in sin and licentiousness — woe to you!” ³God says to the mighty of Israel thus: “If you have not walked in my commandment, and have not kept my word, and have not loved what I love — woe to you! ⁴I will bring scourge and destruction and affliction upon you; you shall perish as the moth consumes; your trace shall not be found in your districts. ⁵Your country shall become wilderness; everyone who saw it before shall clap his hands. ‘Was not this country full of blessing and all that is good? Has God so done to it on account of the sin of the people who dwelt in it?’” — so shall they marvel at her. ⁶Because God has humbled her in the dust of the earth — because she has stiffened her heart; because she has exalted herself; because she has stretched out her neck — and because of the arrogance of those who dwell in her, she has become a wilderness; thistle and thorn have sprouted on her. Woe to her! ⁷Reed and sedge she has sprouted; wilderness and desert she has become; wild beasts dwell in her. ⁸To those who pass through her, she has become a terror. For the wrath of God has fallen upon her; on account of the arrogance of her mind and the wickedness of the people in her, she has drunk from the cup of his wrath.

Chapter 36

¹Men of Macedonia, do not boast! Amalekites, do not stiffen your neck! For there is God who shall avenge himself against you. ²Though you exalt yourself to heaven, you shall descend to Sheol. ³Israel, in old times when they entered the land of Egypt under the kingdom of Moab and Media, [God] said: “Do not boast, for it is not fitting to contend with God.” ⁴“You also, Ishmaelite, son of the slave-woman — why do you stretch out your neck against that which is not yours? Do you not consider that, when [she] rises to be judged in the earth, on the day of judgment God shall judge you? ⁵At that time you shall receive according to the work of your hand. Why do you exalt your mind? Why do you stretch out your neck? says God who rules all. ⁶As you have challenged those who are not your kindred — so I will challenge you; for you do what you have desired in order to do evil; therefore in the place to which I have sent you, I disregard you. ⁷And I will do likewise to you, says God who is all-powerful. But if you do good, and love what I love — all that you have asked, I will hear. ⁸If you do my will, I will do your will; I will set myself against your enemies for you; I will bless your work, your seed, and your children. ⁹I will bless the flock of your cows and your sheep; if you walk in my commandment, and do what I love, I will bless all on which you lay your hand, says God who is all-powerful. ¹⁰But if you do not do my will, if you do not walk in my commandment and my law — all this misery foretold before shall reach you; for I will not endure you in my commandment; you have not walked in my law; you cannot escape my wrath which always comes upon you. ¹¹For you have not loved what I loved. Though I brought you from non-existence into existence and created you, you have neglected to praise me and worship me. ¹²That you might do whatever you wished, I gave you honor and lordship over those beneath you. That you might kill and save, do and undo, honor and humble, raise up and lay low — it was yours. ¹³And if you do the will of God and walk in his commandment, that you may be made glad with him in his lordship, that you may be a sharer with the people who have inherited the holy land — he loves you. ¹⁴For he has said: ‘If they endure me, I will give them honor and love as inheritance; in my sanctuary I will make them glad; like the sacrifice of the eucharist they shall be chosen and beloved, says God who is all-powerful.’” ¹⁵Do not neglect doing good and the path of salvation, that you may cross over from death to life. ¹⁶Those who do good works, however — God preserves them in all that is good, that they may be his servants like Job, whom God preserved from all evil. ¹⁷Like Abraham whom he saved when he killed the kings; like Moses whom he saved from the hand of the Canaanites with whom Abraham had lived, and from the hand of Pharaoh — when they sought to make him worship the idol morning and evening, day and night, troubling his body — ¹⁸but he, when they sought to draw him to their idols, endured, saying “No.” ¹⁹He continued to say “No” to them; he continued to worship God who had created him. From his childhood, Abraham who had believed in him was the faithful friend of God. ²⁰Because he utterly loved God, until he died he did not neglect to worship God; until the day of his death he did not transgress his commandment; he taught his children that they should keep the commandment of God. ²¹And as their father Abraham had done, they did not transgress the commandment of God. “I have a friend on earth whose name is Abraham,” he said to the angels — God spoke about them this way: his servants Isaac and Jacob, the children of Abraham, did not transgress God’s law. ²²“Abraham is my friend; Isaac is my favored one; Jacob is the beloved of my heart; in them I have been praised, says God who is all-powerful.” ²³And though he utterly loved the sons of Israel, they continually grieved him; and he endured them, feeding them with manna in the wilderness. ²⁴Their garments did not wear out; their feet did not become tired, for they had eaten the bread of knowledge — manna. ²⁵But their mind was always far from God; from the beginning they had been doers of wickedness; there was no hope for their salvation. ²⁶They became as a perverse bow; in their lovely conduct they did not serve God like their fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; on their mountain and their hill they always grieved him with their idol; on the mountain, in the cave, and under the trees they ate. ²⁷They slaughtered the bull; they offered sacrifice; they rejoiced in the work of their hand; they ate of the remainder of the sacrifice; they drank the libation-portion of the drink-offering; with demons they sang and made merry. ²⁸And the demons admired all their games and songs, all their drunkenness; they fornicated beyond measure; the plunder and greed God does not love, they did. ²⁹To the idol of Canaan, to Baal; to the idol of Midian; to the idols of the Philistines, to Dagon and to Apollon; to Arṭemades and to Serapion; ³⁰to all the idols of the surrounding heathen, they offered sacrifice. They worshiped, doing all that they saw and heard the heathen do; the games and songs of the heathen, their roaring, they performed. ³¹The people of Israel, who said “We worship God,” did so. That they might keep God’s commandments and refrain from worshiping idols — ³²[though God] fed them with the grain of the threshing-floor, brought them to the harvest of the land, brought near to them the honey from the comb, fed them with manna, [and gave them the Torah commandment] not to worship any god besides their fathers’ Creator as Moses had told them in the Law — yet they did not do his commandment and his law. ³³What they desired and sought, he did not withhold; for he is their God; he fed them what they loved. ³⁴But they did not leave off grieving God; when he gladdened them, they forgot God. ³⁵When he brought scourge upon them, they cried out to him; and from the affliction that came upon them, he saved them; again they were openly glad; they lived many years. ³⁶And immediately, as before, they returned their hearts utterly to grieve God; and he raised against them the heathen around them, that they should destroy them; afflicting them, they made them tributary. ³⁷Again, turning back, they cried swiftly to their Creator God. ³⁸And he forgave them — not on their own account, but on account of their fathers who had served God from old in their pleasing conduct, and to whom he had confirmed his oath: their fathers Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ³⁹He loved them that he might multiply their seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea — those who loved him and kept his commandment. ⁴⁰Those like the sand of the sea are the souls of sinners from among the sons of Israel who, at the resurrection of the dead, shall be separated and shall enter Gehenna. ⁴¹But those who are called like stars shining in heaven are the souls of the righteous from among the sons of Israel. For God said to Abraham: “Look to heaven by night; count the stars of heaven if you can. So shall your righteous children shine like the stars of heaven in the kingdom of heaven.” ⁴²“Furthermore, look to the seashore and the river-shore; see what is in the sand; count it if you can. So are your children who, at the resurrection of the dead, shall descend to Gehenna.” ⁴³And Abraham believed in God; and therefore it was reckoned to him as righteousness; and his hope on earth was fulfilled — his wife Sarah, even after she had grown old, bore the son Isaac. ⁴⁴And again, on account of his faith, he obtains the kingdom in heaven. For he has believed: ⁴⁵that the dead shall rise; that those who did good works shall go to eternal life; and that those who did evil shall, at the resurrection of the dead, go to eternal punishment. But the righteous who did good works shall reign with him forever. ⁴⁶And the evildoers shall be judged forever. Amen. Amen.

The Second Book of Meqabyan

Chapter 1

¹This is the book that tells how Maqabis found the Jews in Syria between the two rivers; how, from the Jabbok all the way to the square of Jerusalem, he slaughtered them in their valleys; and how he destroyed the holy city. ²From Samaria as far as the square of Jerusalem, even to all her districts they encamped; with the sword they killed, leaving few survivors. For the Edomites and the Syrians and the Amalekites had made common cause with Maqabis the man of Moab, the destroyer of the city of Jerusalem. ³When the sons of Israel transgressed, [God] raised against them Maqabis the Moabite; and he killed them all with the sword. ⁴Therefore the enemies of God grew arrogant against the holy city; in their iniquity they made common cause. ⁵Edomites and Philistines also encamped [there]; for he [God] had sent them, since they had challenged the word of God; they began to take vengeance on the city of God. ⁶That Maqabis’s country was Remat of Moab; with strength he arose from his country, and with all the men who were with him he made common cause. ⁷That they might destroy the city of God, they encamped in Mesopotamia and the valleys of Galaboh as far as Syria; there he sought out the Philistines and the Amalekites; and he gave them much gold and silver, horses and chariots, that they might be one with him in iniquity. ⁸And coming together, they overthrew her fortress; the inhabitants of her shed blood like water. ⁹They made Jerusalem like the hut of a vineyard-keeper; they raised a din within her; he [Maqabis] did every wicked work that God does not love; they defiled the city of God which was full of righteousness and holiness. ¹⁰“They made the corpses of your servants food for the birds of heaven. They made the flesh of your righteous ones food for the wild beasts of the desert.” ¹¹They plundered widows and orphans; what Satan had taught them, they did, without fearing God; until God who searches the kidneys and the heart became angry, they ripped out the fetuses in the wombs of pregnant women. ¹²Because they had done evil to the people of God, they returned to their country rejoicing; they took the plunder they had captured from the holy city. ¹³And when they returned and entered their houses, they made joy, song, and clapping.

Chapter 2

¹The prophet whom they call Re’ay said to him: “Be glad a little today, while it is yet morning; for the Holy One of Israel, the LORD, shall avenge himself against you with a scourge you did not expect. ²Will you say, ‘Horses are swift, therefore by running I will escape’? ³I say to you: the men who pursue you are swifter than carrion-birds; from destruction and the wrath of God which comes upon you, you shall not escape. ⁴Will you say, ‘I will put on armor of iron; the casting of spears and the shooting of arrows cannot touch me’? The Holy One of Israel, the LORD, says: ‘It is not by the casting of spears that I will avenge myself against you’; but worse than the casting of spears and the shooting of arrows, I will bring upon you grievous heart-disease, eczema, and gout. ⁵For you have stirred my anger; I will bring heart-disease upon you; you shall lack a helper; until I have destroyed the calling of your name from the earth, you shall not escape my hand. ⁶Because you have stiffened your neck, because you have exalted your head over my city — when in the blink of an eye I do this thing swiftly, you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Creator. For before me you are like grass before the wind which fire devours; before me you are like dust which the whirlwind takes from the earth and scatters. ⁷You have stirred my anger; you have not known your Creator. I will disregard all that is yours; in every fortress of yours that takes refuge, I will leave nothing. ⁸Now turn from all the wickedness you have done. If you turn — if you confess before God utterly with weeping and sorrow, if you petition him with a pure heart — God will forgive you all the sin you have committed before him.” ⁹Then Maqabis, clothed in dust, wept before God for his sin; for God had been angry with him. ¹⁰And he knew that God would not delay the scourge the prophet had spoken in God’s name. For God’s eyes are open and he does not sleep; his ears are open and he does not disregard; the word he has spoken he does not make false; in one blink of an eye he does it swiftly. ¹¹He cast off his garments and put on sackcloth; he scattered dust on his head; for the wickedness he had done, he cried out before his Creator God; he wept.

Chapter 3

¹Remat of Moab is near Syria; the prophet spoke to him. ²He dug a pit and entered it up to his neck; he wept a bitter weeping; he repented before God for the sin he had committed. ³And God said to the prophet: “Return from the land of Judah to Remat, to Maqabis the chief of Moab. Say to him: God says thus: ‘It was I, the LORD your Creator, who in my will sent you that you might destroy my city — not lest you say, “By my own might and the firmness of my army I destroyed the holy city.” It was not you who did this thing; ⁴for in all her covetousness, in her denial and her lechery, she grieved me. ⁵And I disregarded her; into your hand I delivered her. Not for your sake, lest you stiffen your neck and say, “I encompassed the city with the strength of my own hand.” But now, for the sake of the children whom you have begotten, God forgives you your sin. ⁶Now, with all your heart, take courage and repent. Those who waver do not take courage to repent; do not be a waverer. ⁷But those who repent with all their mind, who in everything they have repented of do not return to perversity and sin — they are blessed. ⁸And those who take courage, with weeping and sorrow, with much petition and prostration, to return to their Creator God — they are blessed. For he has said: “You who have repented after you erred — you who have repented are mine.” ⁹To the proud one who has erred — when he has turned back in repentance — he says: “For your fear and your terror, I forgive you your sin.” For I am the LORD your Creator, who bring the sin of the father upon the children to the third and fourth generation, but to those who love me and keep my law, I show mercy to the thousandth generation. [Ex 20:5–6 / Deut 5:9–10] ¹⁰Now, for the children you have begotten, I will keep my covenant with you; for the sin you have done, I will accept the repentance you have made — so says God Almighty, the Holy One of Israel.’” ¹¹Then he came up out of the pit, saying: “I have grieved God! Do as you please to me; but let me not be separated from you. May God do thus and more to me!” — and he prostrated himself before the prophet. “We had no law; we did not walk in his commandments as our fathers did; as our fathers taught us, we worshiped the idol; you know. ¹²I am a sinner who has walked in my sin and the pride of my heart; in the stiffness of my neck I have grieved my Creator. Until now I have not heard the words of God’s prophets; in his law and commandments which he commanded me, I have not lived.” ¹³And the prophet answered: “Before you, no one from your people has confessed his sin; today I have known that he has accepted your repentance.” ¹⁴“From now on, leave off worshiping idols; turn to the knowledge of God, that your conversion may be true.” And he prostrated himself at the prophet’s feet; the prophet raised him; he commanded him all the good works that were fitting. ¹⁵And he did as God had commanded; he returned to his house. ¹⁶That Maqabis put his mind in order. From his house he removed the idol and the divination, the idol-worshipers and the diviners, the sorcerers. ¹⁷And the children he had brought from Jerusalem as captives — morning and evening he examined them, whether, as their fathers used to do, they kept all the commandments of God, his ordinances and his law. ¹⁸From the captive children, from the educated, he appointed [them] over his house. ¹⁹Furthermore — that they might teach his small, well-loved younger children all that the sons of Israel do (the law of God) — he appointed educated ones from among the smaller [captives] to enter his bedchamber; he heard from the captive children all the ordinances of God, his worship and judgment, and all the customs the Moabites practiced. ²⁰Their shrines, their divinations and their idols, the kid-goats and ewe-lambs they fattened morning and evening, the sacrifice and wine they offered to the idols — these he destroyed. ²¹At noon and at every hour, in all his work, he used to bow and worship them [the idols]; he used to petition them and trust them; even on returning from a journey, he used to petition them; the priests of the idols, in everything they told him, he used to do their will. ²²It seemed to him that in everything they saved him; therefore he did not despise anything they spoke. ²³But now that Maqabis left their way. ²⁴After he had heard the words of the seer whom they called a prophet, he made his way straight in repentance. In those days, all his people made their way straighter than the sons of Israel — for the sons of Israel grieved him from time to time, and when he scourged them, they came to know him; they cried out to God. ²⁵When they were seized by the heathen who afflicted them, and they were humbled, and they cried out to him — when he heard, he remembered the oath to their fathers; at that time, for the sake of their fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he forgave them. ²⁶But when he saved them, they would forget him who had saved them; they would return to worshiping idols. ²⁷Then he would raise the heathen who afflicted them with affliction; and when they afflicted and grieved them, they cried to God; then in pity he forgave them, for they were the creatures of his hand; he loved them. ²⁸Furthermore, even when he was guarding them, they returned to grieving him — worshiping the idols around them and the evil work of their hand. ²⁹And he used to raise against them the people of the Philistines and Moabites, of Midian and Syria, of Egypt; when their enemies defeated them, when they afflicted them and made them tributary, when they ruled them — they would cry and weep; when God willed, he would raise judges to save them; and the judges would save them.

Chapter 4

¹There was a time he saved them by Joshua. ²There was a time he saved them by Gideon. ³There was a time he saved them by Samson, by Barak and Deborah, and by Judith; for, whether through woman or man, dwelling in [the deliverer] — he raised judges to save them from the hand of the enemies who tortured them. ⁴And God, as he willed, used to save them from the hand of those who tortured them. ⁵In all the good he did for them — by multiplying the seed of their land, all the flock of their wilderness, and their cattle — he gladdened them. ⁶He used to bless their cattle and their plantings; in house and in wilderness, all they took hold of he used to bless; he looked upon them with the eye of mercy; he did not diminish their livestock; for they were the children of the righteous, and he loved them utterly. ⁷But when they did evil in their work, into the hand of their enemies he delivered them up. ⁸When he destroyed them, at once they sought him; turning back, they ran to their Creator God. ⁹When they turned with their whole mind, he forgave their sin. For he knows they are flesh and blood; the deceiving thought of this world and the demons are upon them; their former sin he did not remember against them. ¹⁰Now that Maqabis, when he heard this ordinance which God had made on the holy mountain, strove in repentance. ¹¹After he had seen this thing and heard it, he did not slacken in doing good works. Because God had forgiven them, he did not slacken in doing all the kindness the sons of Israel do; when they transgressed his commandment, when God scourged them — they wept and cried out; and again he forgave them; they kept his law. ¹²And Maqabis made his way straight likewise; he kept his commandment; he walked in the commandment of the LORD God of Israel. ¹³Then, hearing all those in whom the sons of Israel trusted, he came to trust as they did — by keeping the commandment of God. ¹⁴His house and his children he urged to walk in all the law and commandment of God. ¹⁵What the Jews were forbidden by ordinance, he too forbade himself; the commandment the Jews kept, he heard and kept. Though he was of distinct Moabite stock, he refrained from the foods the Jews were forbidden. ¹⁶He set aside the tithe; from his sheep and his cows, from his donkeys, the firstborn and all he had purchased he used to give; even as the Jews offered sacrifice, with his face turned toward Jerusalem, he offered sacrifice. ¹⁷The sacrifice of his vow and of his sin, of his will and of his peace, and the perpetual sacrifice — he offered. ¹⁸He gave the first of his harvest; the wine-offering the Jews offered, he too offered; he gave it to the Levite he had appointed; all that the Jews did, he did likewise; he made the incense fragrant. ¹⁹Candlesticks and vessels, tables and tent-curtains, the four colors and rings, the pure oil for the lampstand of the Holy of Holies — when Israel served God in the Holy of Holies — and the curtain, he had made. ²⁰When [the Jews] lived in his law and ordinance, when God did not disregard them and deliver them into the hand of their enemies — Maqabis also did good works in all his ways. ²¹That [God] might be a leader to him, that he might not separate him from the people of Israel whom he had chosen and whose will he did — he always prayed to the Creator of Israel. ²²That he might be given a son in Zion, a house in Jerusalem, and that he might be saved from the destruction the prophet had spoken — that all his repentance and the weeping he had wept before God might be received as his repentance — ²³that his seed might not be destroyed from the earth, that he might be kept in his going-out and his coming-in — he prayed again. ²⁴The Moabite peoples under Maqabis’s authority were pleased to believe; for their chief walked in a straight way, and they saw his judgment; they did his will; for they had despised the judgment and the language of their own country, and they observed that Maqabis’s work was straight and better. ²⁵And they came to him; they heard the mercy and the true judgment of Maqabis. ²⁶He had much wealth: male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys; he had five hundred armored horses; he utterly defeated the Philistines, the Amalekites, and the Syrians — whereas formerly, when he had worshiped idols, they had defeated him. ²⁷But since he had trusted in God, when he went out to battle, it was he who won; there was none who could defeat him. ²⁸They came against him in the strength of their idols to attack him; in the name of their idols they cursed him; but because he had placed his faith on his Creator God, there was none who could defeat him. ²⁹Doing this, and defeating his enemies, and ruling the heathen by his authority — he lived. ³⁰For the wronged he used to avenge; he used to vindicate the cause of the orphan. ³¹Widows and orphans in their time of need he used to receive; the hungry he satisfied from his food; the naked he clothed from his garments. ³²In his wisdom and in the work of his hand he was glad; from what he had, without withholding, he used to give; to the temple he gave tithes; and Maqabis, doing this, rested in good.

Chapter 5

¹He died, leaving his small sons; and they grew up as their father had ordained for them; they kept the ordinances of their house; they kept all their people; the poor, the widows, and the orphans they did not cause to cry out. ²They feared God; their wealth they gave as alms to the poor; all that their father had committed to them they kept; widows and orphans in their hardship they used to comfort; they used to be father and mother to them; from the hand of those who wronged them they used to deliver them; from any uproar and grief that came upon them they used to comfort them. ³Doing this, they lived five years. ⁴After this, King Ṣiruṣaydan of the Chaldeans came, and destroyed all their country, and took the sons of Maqabis captive, and destroyed all their settlements. ⁵He plundered all their wealth; and them — idol-worshipers, who do not walk in the commandment and judgment of God, but in all wickedness and lechery, in defilement and covetousness, in blasphemy and in not considering their God — these took them to their country. ⁶They eat the dead and its blood, what the wild beast has eaten and what has rotted, and all that God does not love; they have no law of all the true commandment written in the Torah. ⁷God who brought them out of their mother’s womb, who fittingly fed them, who is their Creator and Savior — they do not know him. ⁸In judgment they have no law; their step-mother and their aunt they marry; and they go to plunder and to evil, to sin and to lechery; every evil they do; their sisters and their kindred they marry; they have no law. ⁹All their way is mire and darkness, defilement and lechery. ¹⁰But those sons of Maqabis were kept in all their ordinances; they would not eat what had died of itself or been struck by a paw; they would not do all the defilement and sin of the sons of the Chaldeans. For the sons of the heathen — who are not written in this book — sinners and criminals, heretics and deniers, full of utter defilement and plunder — the work they did was evil and abundant. ¹¹Among them, no work which their Creator God loves was found. ¹²Furthermore, they used to worship an idol called Ba’al Pe’or; as their Creator God they used to worship and trust him. But he is deaf and dumb; he has neither sight nor hearing; for he is the work of human hands — an idol; a smith working silver and gold has made him; the work of human hands, without breath or knowledge. ¹³He does not eat; he does not drink. ¹⁴He does not kill; he does not save. ¹⁵He does not plant; he does not uproot. ¹⁶He does not do good; he does not do evil. ¹⁷He does not impoverish; he does not honor. ¹⁸He does not scourge; he does not forgive. But to fools — the Chaldean people — he becomes a stumbling-block, leading them astray.

Chapter 6

¹That enemy of God, the arrogant Ṣiruṣaydan, appointed false priests and servants for his idols. ²They used to offer sacrifice to them; they used to pour out wine for them. ³It seemed to him that they ate and drank. ⁴Each morning he gave them cows and sheep, goats and heifers; morning and evening he offered sacrifice; from that defiled sacrifice he ate. ⁵Furthermore, he stirred up and compelled others to sacrifice to the idols; it was not only he himself who did it. ⁶And when the priests of the idols saw the sons of Maqabis — that they were comely and worshiped their Creator God — they desired to lead them astray to sacrifice and to eat of the defiled sacrifice; but those blessed sons of Maqabis refused them. ⁷For they kept their father’s commandment; in doing good works they stood firm; they utterly feared God. To persuade them to consent was impossible. ⁸And when they had bound them, and reviled them, and plundered them, ⁹they reported to King Ṣiruṣaydan that they refused to bow down to the idols and to sacrifice. ¹⁰Therefore the king was angry; and grieved; and he commanded that they be brought; they were brought, and stood before him; and he said, “Bow down to the gods; offer sacrifice.” ¹¹They answered: “As for us, we will not turn back to you in this matter; to your defiled idols we will not offer sacrifice.” ¹²He frightened them with many tortures; but because they had believed in God and steeled their hearts, he could not overcome them. ¹³Then he kindled fire and cast them in; and they gave their souls to God. ¹⁴And after they died, alive once more, holding their drawn swords, they appeared to him by night as he was lying on the throne of his kingdom; and he was utterly afraid. ¹⁵And he said to them: “Lords, consent to me! What shall I do for you? All you have commanded me, I will do; do not take my soul.” They utterly terrified him. ¹⁶And they said: “Remember that God is your Creator,” telling him all that was fitting. “And there is one who shall remove you from this arrogance and bring you down with your father the Devil to the Gehenna below; there, when we have done you no wrong, while we were worshiping our Creator God, while we were bowing down to him in fear of his Godhead — yet you burned us with fire — you will fulfill all your sentence. ¹⁷For he it is who has created all — heaven and earth, the sea and what is in it, ¹⁸the sun and the moon, the stars, all his creation — he is the LORD. ¹⁹In heaven above and on earth beneath, there is no other God besides him; he is the Almighty; nothing is impossible for him. He kills and saves, scourges and forgives. ²⁰He rules heaven and earth; there is none who escapes his hand. ²¹Except for you, criminal, and the criminals like you whose minds your father Satan has blinded — from all his creation, none transgresses his commandment. You and those idols of yours shall descend together to Gehenna which has no exit forever. ²²It is not you alone who do this; for Satan is your teacher who taught you this evil work, that you might do evil to us. ²³You did not remember God who created you; you make yourself like God your Creator. ²⁴Until God humbles you, you boast in the work of your hand and in your idols; and for all the sin and iniquity you have done on earth, he will avenge himself against you.”

Chapter 7

¹“Woe to you and those like you — who do not know God your Creator, who do not keep his commandment and his word! For you are reserved, when you are seized in the affliction of Sheol and scourged, to repent in worthless repentance. ²To your idols who have neither soul nor breath — who neither avenge those who do evil to them, nor do good to those who do good to them — to whom you and your priests sacrifice and bow down as your Creator God: you have no exit from her [Gehenna] forever. ³For they are the work of human hands; Satan speaks through them, that he may lead astray the minds of fools like you, that he may bring you and the servants of your gods and the demons who command you down to the fire of Gehenna. ⁴You sin and you err; for you do not know that they have no profit for you. ⁵Even the cattle and wild beasts and dogs that God created for your food are better than you. For they have no further condemnation beyond one death. ⁶But you shall die; and again forever, in Gehenna which has no exit, the grinding [judgment] shall fall upon you.” ⁷Speaking thus, they went away; from him they vanished. ⁸But that Ṣiruṣaydan, seized by grievous fear, spent the night trembling; until daybreak it did not leave him. ⁹After this, he went to the place where he had cast the bodies of the righteous; but he did not find them. For he had wished to bury them. But because God had hidden them, that he might not go and touch their bodies, he found them not.

Chapter 8

¹He went in pride and the cunning of his heart. ²In his kingdom, as Daniel saw — the strong iron — he encompassed the surrounding countries of the heathen. ³In all foolishness and wickedness, in uproar, he lived. ⁴What we said before — he breaks, he crushes, he devours. ⁵As he had stiffened his neck like his father the Devil, who spits out venom, he tramples the remnant under his feet. ⁶He does not know that God is his Creator; rather, he says: “My days have become like the days of heaven.” ⁷And in his heart he thinks: “From me the sun rises.” ⁸He rises in might; in the lot of Zebulun he encamps; in Macedonia he raises battle; from Samaria he receives his food-tribute; from Syria they give him gifts of homage. ⁹In the districts of the nomads he encamps; he reaches as far as Sidon; in Achaia he lays tribute; to the flowing sea he exalts his neck; returning, he sends his messages even to the Indian Ocean. ¹⁰So also he exalts his neck up to heaven. ¹¹In arrogance and wickedness he stands firm; he has no humbling of himself. ¹²All his way is to darkness and to mire, to crime and to arrogance, to shedding of blood and to affliction. ¹³All his way God hates. As Sebelyanos the teacher of plunder and wickedness and sin taught him, so he does; the orphan he makes cry out; for the poor he has no pity. ¹⁴The kings of the heathen he placed in his hand and killed. ¹⁵The captains of the enemies he ruled; many heathen he ruled; as he willed, he made them tributary. ¹⁶He showed no mercy; from the Sea of Tarshish to the Sea of Jericho there was nothing he did not seize. ¹⁷To the idol he used to bow; the dead-self-dead and its blood, the paw-struck and what had been sacrificed to idols, he used to eat. In all his work, instead of judgment, there was utter wrath and quarrel; there was no judgment. To the heathen under his authority he was a terror; as he willed, he made them tributary. ¹⁸In whatever he did, the fear of God was not before him; in the presence of his Creator God, he lived in cunning. ¹⁹He did not act as one obedient to his Creator. When God in his anger seizes him, the evil he had done to his neighbor — he pays him its recompense. ²⁰For God has said: “That I may destroy the calling of their name from this world, I avenge myself; I destroy the proud who do not live in my commandment.” As he destroyed the sinners before him, so in his time he avenges him. ²¹The wicked, as they have done evil, receive their recompense. ²²But the doers of good — goodness from God follows them. ²³As Joshua destroyed the five kings of Canaan in one day in one cave, so that he might destroy their armies — by his prayer he made the sun stand still at Gibeon; for until the army of the Hivites and Canaanites, Perizzites and Hittites, Jebusites was destroyed, the sun stood in the midst of heaven — at one time he killed twenty thousand men; he killed them and bound them foot-and-neck; in the cave he killed them with the sword; he closed it with stones. ²⁴Such affliction shall reach those who grieve God by their wicked work.

Chapter 9

¹O weak man, you who are not God! Why do you boast? Today you are man; tomorrow you are earth and ashes; in your grave you become worm and rotting. ²Furthermore — Sheol shall follow you and those who do your work. For your teacher is Sebelyanos who, by causing our father Adam to err, brings the sin of the whole world back upon his own head; ³for, by self-exaltation and the hardening of his heart, he refused to bow down to the work of his Creator. ⁴And you, like your teacher, have refused to bow down to your Creator God. ⁵You too shall go as those before you went — who did not know God their Creator. ⁶As they were avenged for the evil work they did on earth, and as they descended to Sheol — ⁷so also you, like them, shall descend to Gehenna. ⁸You have stirred his anger. God who gave you authority over the five kingdoms — to worship him you have neglected. Do you think you can escape from God’s hand? ⁹Whether you do his will or not — he searches you. If on earth you make your way straight, God will prosper your way; all on which you lay your hand he will prosper; he will bless you; your ancient enemies and your daily enemies he will subdue to you. ¹⁰In your going-out and your coming-in, in the fruit of your belly, in your flocks and your herds, in the work of your hands that you take in hand, in all your heart imagines, he gladdens you. That you may do thus — that you may work and plant, that you may pull down — authority has been given you from God; all shall obey you. ¹¹But if you refuse to hear God’s word and law, and do not live by his judgment — for all his judgment is truth — there is no escaping from God’s hand, just as those before you, the criminals who did not properly worship God or stand firm in his straight judgment, could not. ¹²From his presence nothing is hidden; rather, all is utterly revealed before him. ¹³It is he who holds the authority of kings; it is he who overturns the thrones of the mighty. ¹⁴It is he who exalts the humbled; it is he who lifts up the fallen. ¹⁵It is he who looses those who are bound; it is he who raises the dead. For from him is the dew of mercy: when he wills, he raises the people whose flesh has decayed and rotted and become as dust. ¹⁶Those who have grieved him by doing evil works he also raises — to the resurrection of judgment; he avenges himself against them. ¹⁷And on earth he destroys their seed; for they are the ones who broke God’s law and his ordinance. ¹⁸For the way of the righteous is harder than the way of the wicked; therefore the wicked do not love to live in the counsel of the righteous. ¹⁹As heaven is far from earth, so is the way of the righteous far from the way of the wicked. ²⁰For the way of the wicked is the way of plunder and wickedness, of violence and lechery, of covetousness and denial; it is to grow drunken in violence and to seize the wealth of others. ²¹It is to run swiftly to shed human blood; to do destruction without benefit; to make the orphan cry out; to eat blood and what is dead-of-itself; to eat the flesh of the camel and the swine; to go in to one in childbed and to a woman in her blood not yet purified. ²²All this work of the wicked is the broad way and the laid-out snare of Satan, leading to eternal destruction and punishment. ²³But the way of the righteous, which is narrow and slender — it is the way that leads to life, to meekness and humility, to love and peace, to fasting and prayer, to the purity of the flesh; the way of keeping oneself from the unprofitable, from eating what has been struck or has died of itself, from going in to another’s wife, and from lechery. ²⁴Sinful people do all this. The righteous keep themselves from all hated work not commanded in the law, from eating impure food, and from all work God does not love. ²⁵The righteous remove themselves from every way God does not love. ²⁶And he loves them; from all their afflictions he keeps them as entrusted wealth; he saves them. ²⁷But the wicked — Satan rules over them; for [the righteous] keep his law and his ordinance and all he loves.

Chapter 10

¹As for you, kings and princes — do not walk in the path of Satan; but fear God who created you and has kept you until today. ²Stand firm in the law and commandment of God who rules all. ³When the sons of Israel came to Amalek to inherit the country of the Hittites and Canaanites and Perizzites, Balak the son of Zippor ⁴said to Balaam: “He whom you have cursed is cursed; he whom you have blessed is blessed. Come and curse them for me; and I will give you much gold and silver that shall honor you.” ⁵And Balaam, hoping for the wage of his divination, came; and Balak son of Zippor showed him the place where the sons of Israel were encamped. ⁶He performed his divination; he offered sacrifice; he slaughtered the fattened cows and sheep; he wished to curse the sons of Israel. ⁷But God did not wish that he curse them. By his word he turned the curse into a blessing. ⁸And he said: “You are the people God has chosen; you are the dwelling-place of the Beloved who comes from heaven. Let those who bless you be blessed; and those who curse you, cursed.” ⁹After he had blessed them before him, Balak son of Zippor was grieved; he was utterly angry; he commanded that he curse them. ¹⁰And Balaam said: “The people whom God has blessed have come to this country; I will not curse those whom God has blessed.” ¹¹And Balak son of Zippor said to Balaam: “I wished that you curse them for me; but you have not cursed them; before me you have utterly blessed them. If you had cursed them for me and had said, ‘Give to me,’ I would have given you a houseful of gold and silver; but you have utterly blessed them; for me you have done no good; for you I will do no good.” ¹²And Balaam said: “What word God puts in my mouth, that I will speak; for I cannot disregard the word of God or transgress it. ¹³As for me, I do not love wealth more than my soul. If I loved wealth, God would be angry with me — that I should not curse the blessed people.” ¹⁴For God had said to their father Jacob: “Those who bless you shall be blessed; those who curse you, cursed.” [Num 24:9 / Gen 27:29] ¹⁵Every man who blesses you is blessed; every man who curses you without judgment is cursed. To make God love you, prosper your way and your work. ¹⁶Do not be like those before, who grieved God in their wickedness, and whom he disregarded. Some of them he destroyed with the flood of destruction. ¹⁷Some of them he destroyed by the hand of their enemies. Bringing the wicked enemies who afflicted them, he captured their kings together with their priests and their prophets. ¹⁸They led them into a foreign country they did not know; they utterly led them captive; they scourged them; they destroyed their country. ¹⁹They broke down the wall and rampart of the holy city; they made Jerusalem like a field. ²⁰The priests too were taken captive; the law was broken; the warriors fell by the sword. ²¹Widows were taken captive; for their dead husbands they did not weep; they had been taken captive; they wept for themselves. ²²Children wept; elders were shamed; they did not show pity to the face of the elder and the grey-haired. ²³To the beautiful, and to those under the law, they showed no pity. All they found in their country they destroyed. When [God] first willed to break down the Temple — because he was angry with his people — they took them captive and led them to a foreign country they did not know. ²⁴Therefore, when God disregarded the sons of Israel, he made Jerusalem to be plowed like a field; for always they grieved their Creator. ²⁵But he did not destroy them at once in any way; for he has mercy for their fathers’ sake, not for their own. For he loves those who reigned in truth, who lived steadfast in straight law before their Creator: their fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. ²⁶And he appointed them to double honor; in heaven and on earth, they received the two-fold kingdom. ²⁷So also you kings and princes who live in this passing world — remember your fathers who lived in fitting work, who served God in good conduct, who inherited the kingdom of heaven, whose name has become beautiful from generation to generation. ²⁸So also, that he may straighten your kingdom, that he may make your name good — make your work straight, like the good kings who served God in good conduct before you.

Chapter 11

¹Remember Moses the man of God! In his prayer and his meekness, while he kept all this people, he was not vexed; he did not destroy them. But for his brother and his sister — when God had wished to destroy them at once — in his meekness he interceded before God for their sin thus: “O Lord, your people have transgressed before you; forgive your people; do not disregard them. ²Forgive me, your servant who am a sinner — for I too have transgressed before you. For you are merciful and forgiving; forgive also for them.” ³And so Moses interceded for his kin. ⁴Therefore he was called the meek. ⁵And God loved him utterly above all his brothers, the sons of the Levites; for he appointed the priests; among them, he made him as God. ⁶But the rebellious sons of Korah — he made the earth swallow them up; while still alive in flesh and soul, with their cattle and tents, he brought them down to Sheol. For [Moses] had loved his Creator God; he had not gone out from his commandment; every word he spoke was done for him as the word of God. ⁷So also, if you do not transgress the commandment of God, God will do your will; he will love your word; he will keep your kingdom. ⁸The sons of Korah and Asaph who went out from the commandment of Moses — when he said to them, “Make your hearts straight to God,” they murmured against him. ⁹“Are not we the sons of Levi,” they said, “who serve in the priest’s office in the tent of testimony?” ¹⁰They took their censers to offer incense; they went and offered incense; but God did not receive their prayer; with their censers they burned in fire; they melted like wax melts in fire; not one man of them remained. For he said: “Their censers have been honored by the burning of their bodies.” Therefore, by God’s commandment, they went into the dwelling of God; their clothes and their bones did not remain. ¹¹Therefore God said to Moses and Aaron: “Gather their censers into the tent; for the vessel of my house, which I have prepared from outside to inside, let it be.” ¹²He prepared the vessels of the holy tent: the mercy-seat and its ring, the image of the cherubim, and the sea. ¹³The fine linen and the curtain, the bolts and the surround-girdle of the tent, the vessels and the altar on which sacrifice was offered in the tent of testimony, he made. ¹⁴They offered the freewill-offering and the peace-offering, the vow-offering and the sin-offering, the evening and the morning sacrifice. ¹⁵They commanded all that he commanded Moses in the tent of testimony, to do its work. ¹⁶They did not despise obeying their God — that his name might be praised in them within the dwelling-tent of their Creator God’s law — [who is the one] who brings forth milk and honey, who swore to Abraham, who promised to give them their fathers’ inheritance. ¹⁷To Isaac he swore; for Jacob he established the worship. ¹⁸For Moses and Aaron, he established it in the tent of testimony, ¹⁹for Samuel and Elijah he established the worship, until — in the tent at Jerusalem and in the Temple Solomon built — it became the dwelling of God, the resting-place of the name of the Most High, the dwelling of the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰For [the tent] is the place of petition that is revealed for the meek priests, the place of atonement for sin. ²¹It is the place where the petition of those who do his will is heard. ²²For there the law of the Holy One of Israel, the LORD, is performed. ²³For there sacrifice is offered as a sweet savor to the Holy One of Israel, the LORD; there incense is burned. ²⁴And in the tent of testimony, on the mercy-seat where he forgives, he used to speak. To the chosen sons of Jacob, to his saints who lived steadfast in God’s law and commandment, his light used to be revealed. ²⁵But those who contend [against him] become like the sons of Korah whom the earth swallowed up; so also, sinners shall enter the fire of Gehenna which has no exit forever.

Chapter 12

¹Woe to you, mighty of Israel, who have not kept what [God] commanded you in the tent, who have done his will except by your own will! And this is — pride and arrogance, lechery and covetousness, drunkenness and drink, swearing in falsehood. ²Therefore my wrath shall burn upon you like the chaff before fire; like the fire that consumes the mountain; like the whirlwind that takes the powdered dust from the earth and scatters it to the heavens so that no trace of its work is found — ³so I will destroy all who work wickedness, says the Holy One of Israel, the LORD. Remember the LORD who rules all; nothing is impossible for him. ⁴Those who love him, he loves; those who walk in his commandment — their transgression and sin he forgives. Do not be deaf in unbelief and dull of heart. ⁵Make your minds straight toward God; trust in him that you may save your souls; on the day of your affliction I will save you from the hand of your enemies. ⁶“And when you call on me, behold I say: I am with you. From the hand of your enemies I will save you; because you have trusted in me, because you have done my commandment, because you have not gone out from my law, because you have loved what I love — on the day of your affliction I will not disregard you,” says the LORD who rules all. ⁷Those who love him, he loves; for he is compassionate and forgiving; those who keep his commandment, he keeps. ⁸Many times he turns his wrath from them; because he knows they are flesh and blood, he is forgiving; in all his scourging he does not destroy. When their soul is separated from their flesh, they return to their earth-nature. ⁹For from non-existence he created them; until God wills again to bring them from non-existence, they do not know the place where they shall dwell; for he has taken their soul; the earth-nature he has returned to its earth-nature. ¹⁰Again, by his will, he brings them from non-existence into existence. ¹¹But Ṣiruṣaydan, the denier of God, multiplied arrogance before God’s face; until the day [God] willed [his end] — when [God] forsook him — he exalted himself. ¹²And he said: “My days have become like the days of heaven. I am the one who brings forth the sun. Until forever, I shall not die.” ¹³And before he had finished speaking this thing, an angel of death whose name is Ṭelmiyakos descended and struck his heart; in that very hour he died. He had not praised his Creator; through the abundance of his arrogance and the wickedness of his work, he was separated from his beautiful life and perished. ¹⁴And the army of the king of the Chaldeans, which had wished to fight him — when it was encamped outside his city and the square of his country — at his death, came out and destroyed his country; they plundered all his cattle; up to the wall they left no man. ¹⁵They plundered all his wealth; they took his utensils; they burned his city with fire and returned to their country.

Chapter 13

¹And those who believed — the five sons of Maqabis — refusing to eat the sacrifice offered to the idol, gave their bodies up to death. ²Knowing that this world grows old and passes, that pleasure does not abide forever — that they might be saved from the fire in heaven, they gave their bodies to fire. ³For they knew that to challenge God is worse than to challenge man; that the wrath of God is worse than the wrath of a king. ⁴“O Lord, one day’s gladness in Paradise is better than many years’ life on earth; better is one hour of your forgiveness than many years. ⁵What are our days as men? Are they not as a passing shadow — like wax beside fire? ⁶But you, O Lord, abide forever; your years are not fulfilled; the calling of your name is from generation to generation.” ⁷And the sons of Maqabis sang this and the like; they chose to trust in God; they refused to eat the defiled sacrifice; ⁸therefore, knowing that the dead rise and that after the resurrection judgment shall be pronounced, for the sake of God they gave their bodies to martyrdom. ⁹O people who do not know and do not believe the resurrection of the dead — from these five men, who in their brotherly love gave their bodies up together to death, knowing that their later life is better than this passing earthly life — learn! ¹⁰Knowing that all things pass, and because they trusted in him, and did not bow to the idol, and did not eat the dead-of-itself or defiled sacrifice — they gave their bodies up to death, that they might receive praise from God. ¹¹Having wives and children, they did not regard the sweetness of this world or the bitterness of death; knowing that on the last day they will be glad in soul and body, knowing that on the last day the resurrection in soul and body will be done, they gave their bodies up to death. ¹²Those who kept the ordinance of God — knowing that in the world to come, where there is no sickness or sorrow or death, they shall reign with the good kings and princes who believed God’s word for generation upon generation and for long ages — ¹³seeing in their hearts what is yet to be, in the midst of the fire as wax they gave their bodies up to death. ¹⁴Hoping that their faces shall shine seven times brighter than the sun, that when all are raised in soul and body they shall be glad in his love — they gave their bodies up to death.

Chapter 14

¹The matter of the Jews and the Samaritans, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who do not believe the resurrection of the dead — this greatly grieves me; my heart knows it. The Jews say: “Let us eat, let us drink; for tomorrow we die; there is nothing we see beyond.” ²The Samaritans say: “Our flesh becomes dust; therefore it does not rise. ³At the time of the resurrection, we believe in the rising of our soul. For the soul is invisible like the wind, like a thunder-voice — no one can say, ‘See, here she is’; she is not seen. Therefore even if the flesh dies, she does not die. ⁴But our flesh is visible in all; she becomes ash and dust. For wild beasts eat her; worms in the grave eat her. ⁵And those who have eaten her become as grass; they become dust as though never created; they become ash; their trace is not found. Where shall the rotten bodies be found?” ⁶The Pharisees say: “We believe the rising of the dead. But souls — not on earth — in heaven, [God] clothes them with another body.” ⁷The Sadducees say: “After our soul has gone out from our flesh, we do not rise from death; for soul and body there is no resurrection; after we die, we do not rise.” ⁸Therefore they utterly err; they speak blasphemy against God and his Lordship; their case grieves me. ⁹They have not believed in God who justifies them; they have no hope of salvation; nor of rising from the dead. ¹⁰O blind Jew! Will you make God who created you from non-existence — who, while you were as spittle, made you man — into one ignorant of knowledge? Is it impossible for him who created you in his image and likeness to unite your soul and your body and raise you? ¹¹You shall not escape from God’s hand; do not think thus. Without your willing, you shall rise. At your death, the cord of Sheol by which you were taken is on your neck; without your willing, you shall be judged. ¹²For that cord which is bound on your neck — from the stalk of Sheol — sprouts up to you in your mother’s womb. As you grow, she also grows. ¹³And at your death they place her on your neck; when they pull her stalk, she brings them; she draws her branches. ¹⁴All sinners are seized within her with the cord on their neck. ¹⁵And the souls of all sinners come from the edge of heaven where they are; so also your cord draws your soul from where you are and brings you into Sheol. ¹⁶After your flesh is separated from your soul, like the flesh of our father Adam, in completeness, by God’s grace and dew, it rises. There, as you have done iniquity and sin, as you have not believed, you shall receive your recompense. ¹⁷Do not think you only deceive others; you deceive yourself; in your error you abide in the grave; and saying “there is no resurrection of the dead,” you cause [people] to depart from the commandment of God. ¹⁸As you have done your work, that he may give you your recompense, he shall raise you. Who, in the dust and ash, will leave you? ¹⁹At that time, if there is in you a wind-nature [which is] in the wind, if there is in you a water-nature [which is] in the water, if there is in you an earth-nature [which is] on earth, if there is in you a fire-nature [which is] in fire — it shall come. ²⁰Even the soul that dwelt in you, dwelling in a dark place, shall come. ²¹And the souls of the righteous, who dwell in joy in Paradise, shall come. ²²And you, O Jew, and you, O Samaritan, and you, O Pharisee, and you, O Sadducee — until you are judged, you shall dwell in darkness. ²³Then, because you deceived people, as your work was, you shall see how God repays you. ²⁴And you say: “The dead do not rise; tomorrow we die; let us eat and drink” — though you sit on Moses’s seat, in your word you say “there is no resurrection of the dead.” ²⁵Therefore, knowing the book of the Torah and teaching the word of the Scriptures, you err. It would have been better for you had you not learned — [and thus] not deceived people. ²⁶With your evil teaching and your unprofitable word, you cause God’s people to deny [him]. It would have been better had you not known the word of the Scriptures. ²⁷But you — as your work and the fruit of your lips, so shall be given you. For God shows no partiality of face; to his friends who teach good work, he gives from the grace he has prepared. ²⁸And from God who judges you, there is no escape; he will repay you according to your work; you and those you taught shall be judged together. ²⁹And know that the dead rise. Those who kept the law shall also rise; in the grave they cannot remain; for when rain falls, the earth brings forth grass — so his commandment brings them forth. ³⁰As when rain has watered the earth, the moist tree puts forth leaves; as wheat produces grain; as the grain field puts forth shoots; and as God, when he wills, cannot be refused her fruit; ³¹as a pregnant woman, when birth-pangs have taken her, cannot close her womb or escape without giving birth — ³²so the earth — those gathered into her, she brings forth. After she has heard the word of God, she cannot close her womb; for the dew commanded from God descends upon her, and in one time she shall bear them all. ³³And the bodies shall be gathered at the places where their corpses fell; and the storehouses of souls shall be opened; and the souls shall return to the flesh from which they were first separated. ³⁴And when the trumpet is sounded, the dead shall rise in the blink of an eye; they shall stand before God; and as their hands’ work, so shall be given them. ³⁵At that time you shall see that you too rise with the dead; you shall marvel at all the work you did on earth; and when you see them written before your eyes, then you shall repent with worthless repentance. ³⁶You shall know that with the dead you rise; and as you have done, so you shall receive.

Chapter 15

¹Those who find their good work shall be glad at that time. But those who disregarded, saying “the dead do not rise,” when they see that the dead are raised with their useless evil work, then they shall grieve. ²That work they did shall judge them; and they themselves know that they shall be judged without dispute. ³In the day of weeping and judgment — in the day of the final-decree, in the day of the LORD — the godless shall stand in the place of standing. ⁴In the day of utter darkness, in the day of mist, in the day of lightning, in the day of thunder, ⁵in the day of fear and trembling, in the day of cold and heat, in the day of frost, ⁶in the day in which the evil man receives his recompense as he did evil; in the day in which the pure man receives his wage as he did pure work; in the day in which the sinner receives his recompense as he did sin; ⁷in the day in which the master is not honored above his servant, when the mistress is not honored above her maidservant, ⁸when the king is not honored above the poor, when the elder is not honored above the child, when the father is not honored above the son, when the mother is not honored above the daughter, ⁹when the rich is not honored above the poor, when the arrogant is not honored above the humbled, when the great is not honored above the small. For it is the day of judgment; the day of recompense and punishment; the day in which each receives as he has done. ¹⁰It is the day in which those who did good works receive their wage; the day in which those who did evil receive evil. ¹¹It is the day in which those who received their wage are glad; the day in which those who received evil grieve. And those who twist the Scriptures, saying “the dead do not rise,” also see. ¹²Then the sinners of the earth weep for the sin they have done; and for the unsettled grief that comes upon them because of their failure to do good while on earth. ¹³Likewise, because they did good work on earth, the joy of the doers of good — the good — shall not be fulfilled forever. ¹⁴Knowing that they shall rise from death, they did not depart from the law of their Creator. ¹⁵Because they did not depart from his commandment, they shall inherit two lives; on earth he multiplied their seed; he blessed their children. ¹⁶And in heaven, on the day of resurrection — when the rich become poor — he shall give them as inheritance the Kingdom of Heaven, which he swore to their fathers. ¹⁷Those who do evil and do not believe the rising of the dead, who do not consider the law of God and the day of resurrection — they shall weep. ¹⁸Then they shall see the affliction without end, the affliction without salvation or settlement that comes upon them; in their mind there shall be unsettled grief without rest. ¹⁹The worm that does not sleep, the fire that is not quenched, shall reach them. ²⁰And on the place where their flesh is, fire and sulphur, whirlwind, frost and hail, brimstone shall rain upon them. ²¹Upon the people who do not believe the rising of the dead is the fire of Gehenna.

Chapter 16

¹Consider for yourself what is in your flesh: the nails of your hands and feet, and the hair of your head. When you cut them, they grow swiftly back. If you have heart and mind to believe, know this from that. ²From where do these — the nails of your hand and foot, and the hair of your head — come, you ask? Has not God prepared them to grow, that you may know the resurrection in your own flesh, not in another’s — that you may know the resurrection done in you? ³And you, saying “there is no resurrection of the dead,” deceiving people — as you have done sin and iniquity, you shall receive your recompense at the time of the resurrection. ⁴When the day of your recompense reaches you, you shall see it. Even the wheat, even the barley you have sown does not refuse to sprout. ⁵Again — the plant you planted does not say “I will not sprout”; whether vine or fig, the leaf and the fruit do not change. ⁶If you plant a vine, it does not change to become a fig; if you plant a fig, it does not change to become a vine; if you sow wheat, it does not change to become barley; ⁷if you sow barley, it does not change to become wheat. Rather, all by their kind and clan, by their fruit and tree, by their leaf and root — receiving blessing through the dew of mercy from God — bring forth fruit. ⁸So also the earth — what God sowed in her, soul and flesh, she brings forth; what God sowed, soul and flesh in unity, shall rise. Those who did good works are not exchanged for those who did evil; those who did evil are not exchanged for those who did good. ⁹When the hour of the trumpet’s sounding has come, the dead shall rise by the dew of mercy from God; those who did good shall rise to the resurrection of life; their wage is what God has prepared for the good — the dwelling of the pure, the Paradise of joy, where there is no affliction or disease, where they shall no more die. ¹⁰But those who did evil shall rise to the resurrection of judgment, and with the deceiver Devil, ¹¹with his armies the demons — who do not wish that even one of the sons of men should be saved — they shall go to eternal punishment. ¹²To the edge of darkness where there is grinding of teeth and weeping; where there is no forgiveness or mercy; where there is no exit forever — they shall descend into Gehenna. While they were in their flesh, on earth in their life, they did no good work. ¹³Therefore both soul and flesh shall be judged at the resurrection. ¹⁴Woe to those who do not believe the rising of soul and flesh in unity — by which God shows the multitude of his wonders! ¹⁵All — each one — shall receive his wage as his work and the labor of his hand.

Chapter 17

¹A grain of wheat does not sprout if it does not first break; it bears no fruit. But if the wheat-grain breaks, it sends down its root to the earth; it puts forth a leaf; it becomes a shoot; it bears fruit. ²You know that one grain of wheat becomes many grains. ³Likewise, this grain sprouts because of wind and water and earth; the sun stands in place of fire. Wheat cannot bear fruit without the sun. ⁴The wind stands in place of the soul; without the wind, wheat cannot bear; the water gives the earth drink and quenches her thirst. ⁵The earth, after she has drunk the water, brings forth the root; her shoot ascends; as God has blessed her, she bears. ⁶But the grain of wheat is the image of Adam, in which the rational soul God created has dwelt; so also the vine — it drinks water; it sends down its root; the slender cords of its root pull water. ⁷And it raises that water to the tips of its leaves; for the dew from God waters the tall tips of the vines. In the heat of the sun, it sprouts forth; by the will of God, it bears fruit. ⁸It makes a sweet savor that gladdens the heart; when one eats, it satisfies like grain that does not let one hunger, like water that does not let one thirst; when pressed, it becomes wine. ⁹When drunk, it gladdens the heart of man — “wine gladdens the heart of man,” as said in the Psalm. The careless man who opens his mouth and drinks becomes drunk; it fills his lungs; the blood flows to his heart. ¹⁰Wine intoxication greatly deceives, taking his sense; the ditch and the cliff he sees as a wide field; he does not know the stumbling-block and thorn at his hand and foot. ¹¹And God did so with the vine and its fruit — that he might be praised in his name by those who do his will and believe the resurrection of the dead. ¹²Those who believe the rising of the dead — he gladdens in the dwelling of life.

Chapter 18

¹People who do not believe the resurrection of the dead — how greatly do you err? When they have led you to a place you do not know, when they have cast you into Gehenna because you did not believe the rising of the dead in soul and body together, then you shall repent with useless repentance. ²Saying “we know the dead, who have become dust and ash, do not rise,” you deceive the minds of your neighbors — and you shall receive your wage as you have done, whether good or evil. ³Therefore they deceive their neighbors. Their death has no rest; their scourge has no strength; in their toil they have not stood firm; before God’s assize they must stand. ⁴When [God] rebukes them in his wrath, when he is angry that they have done evil, they shall be greatly ashamed. They speak without knowing the way of God; they do not know where they came from. ⁵Nor the Gehenna they go to do they know; full of wrath, perverse in their work and evil, they teach their neighbors according to the perversity of their mind. Saying “there is no resurrection of the dead,” they teach a perverse thing. ⁶Then they shall know the dead rise; that they shall be judged because they did not believe the resurrection of the dead that comes for all the kindred of the sons of men. ⁷For we are all sons of Adam; and by Adam we have died. By the transgression of our father Adam, we have received the sentence of death from God. ⁸Again, that we may receive our wages for the work we have done, we shall rise with our father Adam; for by our father Adam’s ignorance, the world was subjected to death. ⁹Therefore, by Adam’s transgression, we receive our recompense. Our flesh melts in the grave; our bones are crushed. ¹⁰The earth drinks our marrow; we perish; the beauty of our face perishes in the dust; our flesh is buried in the tomb; our beautiful voice is buried in the earth. ¹¹From our shining eyes, worms come forth; our form perishes in the grave; we become dust. ¹²Where is the beauty of the youths whose form was beautiful, whose stature was lovely, whose speech was smooth? ¹³Where is the strength of warriors? Where is the might of kings, the honor of princes? Where is the parading on horseback, the adornment in gold and silver, the parading in shining weapons? ¹⁴Where is the taste of dainty foods and the sweet drinking of wine?

Chapter 19

¹O Earth, who have gathered kings and princes, the great and the honored, lovely women and fair maidens — woe to you because of yourself! ²Those of good form, fair of countenance, possessed of knowledge and mind — whose word, like the playing of the harp, like the song of the lyre and the lute, was beautiful in melody; ³whose voice, like sweet wine, gladdened; whose eyes shone like the morning star; ⁴whose right hand was strong to give and take, who shot arrows; whose feet, like even wheels, ran beautifully — mighty men whom you have gathered — O Earth, woe to you because of yourself! ⁵O Death, sent by the will of God, who has separated the souls of beautiful people from their flesh — woe to you because of yourself! ⁶And you also, Earth! You have gathered the many bodies which God brought forth from you and returned to you. Woe to you because of yourself! By the will of God we came forth from you; to you we return; by the will of God we were glad upon you. ⁷You became a couch for our corpses; on you we walked; in you we lay down; we ate your fruit; you ate our flesh. ⁸From your spring, water we drank; you drank from the spring of our blood; from your fatness of earth we ate; you ate the fatness of our bones. ⁹From your earth — that you might be our food, as God commanded — full of dew, grain we ate; you received the beauty of our flesh; as God commanded you, you made it dust for your food. ¹⁰O Death, you who have gathered many mighty kings and princes — who, as God who created you commanded, were not afraid of their splendor and majesty, who did not despise even the hungry — woe to you because of yourself! ¹¹You have not pitied those of fair countenance; you have not left the strong and the warriors; the rich and the poor, the ill-favored and the fair, elders and children, women and men — you have not left. ¹²Those who thought good and did not transgress his commandment, you have not left; those who in their work were as beasts, who thought evil, you have not left. Those whose beauty was perfect, whose word and matter were sweet, you have not left. ¹³Those whose word was wrathful and whose mouth was full of curse, you have not left; their souls you gathered into your storehouses of light and darkness. ¹⁴And the earth — gathered their flesh, whether in cave or in earth — until the trumpet is sounded and the dead rise. ¹⁵Those who did evil shall receive their wage as their work. For at the sound of the trumpet and the commandment of God, the dead rise in the blink of an eye; and those who did good works shall be glad.

Chapter 20

¹When in fear and trembling we stand before him, believe me — all the work we have done on earth shall not be hidden or pass away. ²When we shall not have provisions for the way; when we shall have no garment for our body; ³when we shall have no staff for our hand and no sandals for our feet; ⁴when there shall be mire, ravine, darkness, thorn and bramble, sea-depth, pit-depth — when we do not know the way they take us; ⁵when we do not know those who take us — and do not hear their speech; ⁶for they are dark and lead us to darkness; we do not see their face. ⁷As the prophet David said: “When my soul was failing within me, O LORD my God, you knew my path; in the way I walked, they hid a snare against me. I looked to my right, and saw; there was no one who knew me; there was no place of refuge for me.” [Ps 142:3–4] ⁸And David, when he said this, knew that the demons mock him and lead him to a way he does not know. Turning to the right and to the left, he found no one who knew him. ⁹None knew him; but he was in the midst of the angels of darkness. ¹⁰Those sent to the righteous are subtle angels of light, who receive the souls of the righteous and lead them to the place of life and light. ¹¹But those sent to the souls of the wicked are angels of darkness and demons, who take them and lead them to the eternal punishment prepared for them — that they may receive their recompense for the sin they have done. ¹²Those who lead them to destruction — woe to the souls of the wicked, who have no rest or escape, who have no exit forever from the affliction that has come upon them. ¹³They have gone in the way of Cain; they have perished in the iniquity of Balaam; they have abandoned all they ought to have done. To take by violence the wealth of another that is not theirs, they justify the taking of bribes and usury. ¹⁴And as their work has been, so shall they receive their recompense in the fire of Gehenna.

Chapter 21

¹Where are those people who in violence gathered the wealth of others — wealth not their own, not the work of their own hand? ²Without payment they take the wealth of others; not knowing the day of their death that shall reach them, they gather; and to strangers they leave their wealth. ³Their children do not rejoice in their fathers’ wealth; for like their fathers — sinners who afflict and seize, whether by theft or by plunder — they are the kindred of the wicked. ⁴Their fathers’ wealth does not profit them; it has been gathered by plunder and violence. Like the mist of urine, like the smoke the wind scatters, like the grass that withers, like the wax that melts before fire — so shall the honor of the wicked perish. ⁵As David said: “I saw the sinner like the cedar of Lebanon, flourishing and exalted; but when I returned, I missed him; I sought him; I did not find his place.” [Ps 37:35–36] ⁶That those who today wrong their neighbors — gathering by violence the wealth of others, thinking themselves immortal — may not boast: the destruction of the wicked is thus, in one moment. ⁷O fools — consider that you pass away, and that your wealth passes with you. Your gold and silver, however much, shall become rust. ⁸Though you multiply children, it shall be the multiplication of graves; though you multiply houses, they shall be in ruin. ⁹Because you have not done the will of God your God, though you multiply cattle, they shall become plunder for your enemies; for they are not blessed; all the wealth on which you have laid your hand shall not be found. ¹⁰Whether in house or in wilderness, whether in pasture or in field, whether in threshing-floor or in winepress — it shall not be found. ¹¹Even in the fruit of your belly you shall not rejoice; rather, because of your enemies, it shall be sorrow to you. For because you have not kept the commandment of God, God will not save you together with all your household. ¹²But those who have kept his law, ordinance, and commandment — from his blessing he does not withhold; all they have asked he gives; the fruit of their land and the fruit of their belly he blesses. ¹³That they may rule and not be ruled, he sets them above all the heathen surrounding them; in their pasture-place he gives them all his blessing. ¹⁴All on which they lay their hand, all the fruit of their field, all the place of their cattle, he blesses; in the fruit of their belly he gladdens them. ¹⁵He does not diminish their cattle; from all their afflictions — from sickness and weariness, from destruction, from what is known and unknown — he saves them. ¹⁶In the time of judgment he contends for them; from evil and affliction, from all who oppose them, he saves them. In the beginning, the Levite who received the work of the tent as a trust kept the work of the tent; if he walked in the will of God, in the first law as in all the [later] law, they gave him the tithe and the firstborn from man to cattle. ¹⁷As Moses commanded Joshua the son of Nun, in their cities was a city of refuge — that any man might be saved there who had killed another, whether knowing or unknowing, until those who judge and those who are judged gave judgment. ¹⁸“Examine in your mind whether he had a previous quarrel with him,” he said to them; ¹⁹“and whether by axe, or stone, or wood — if it fell from his hand unknowingly and the man on whom it fell died — examining, save him; he did it unknowingly; he shall be saved. ²⁰But if he did it knowingly, as his trespass deserves he shall receive his recompense; there is none who shows him mercy. If he did it unknowingly and killed him — because he did it unknowingly, examining, save him that he may not die.” ²¹Moses had made for the sons of Israel an ordinance such as this, that they might not transgress the commandment of God; he had made for them an ordinance that they might depart from all wickedness. ²²That they might live by his judgment and his law — that they might wholly keep themselves from worshiping idols, from eating dead-of-itself and paw-struck — for those who live in the commandment of God and depart from every evil work, as he had ordained for them — that they might keep themselves utterly from all that is unfitting for the sons of men — he commanded them. ²³That they might save their souls, that they might find their dwelling with their fathers who did good — that they might not depart from the commandment he had made for them, in the image of the tent in heaven, he commanded them. ²⁴Those who believe the word of God and walk in his commandment — they are called sons of the righteous. From Adam and Seth, who did the will of God, they are. ²⁵We are sons of Adam; that we should do good work and all that pleases God — for he created us in his image and likeness — he does not despise us. ²⁶If we do good work, with those who did good work we shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven; for he does not separate those who love each other. ²⁷Those who petition him in purity, he greatly loves; he hears their prayer; those who utterly repent, he accepts their repentance; to people who keep his law and ordinance and commandment, he gives strength and firmness. ²⁸And those who do his will — forever in his Kingdom they shall be glad with him; whether first or last, they shall offer him praise. From today and unto eternity. Amen.

The Third Book of Meqabyan

Chapter 1

¹Concerning the merciful and meek one who is to come in the latter time, who shall avenge himself against the cruel and deceiving Devil — the opposer of his Creator’s way — the islands of Egypt rejoice. ²And he shall avenge him; for he [the Devil] has exalted himself in his heart; [the avenger] shall return his glory to the earth and to humiliation. ³For he [the Devil] said: “Who is above me? I will enter the depths of the sea; I will ascend to heaven; I will see the deeps; I will grasp the sons of Adam like the chicks of a bird, and I will seize them. ⁴That I may turn them away from the straight law of God, I will create occasion against them; I shall prevail over people who live on earth and have not done God’s will; there is none who shall deliver from my hand. ⁵And I shall return them to a perverse path, that they may go with me to destruction. ⁶Therefore those who love him and keep his law hate me. But those who err, separated from their Lord, come to me; they love me; they keep my covenant. I darken their hearts that they may not return to God their Creator; I twist their thoughts; they do my commandment as I have commanded them. ⁷When I show them the wealth of this world, I lead their minds astray from the straight way; when I show them beautiful women and maidens, by these I lead them away. ⁸When I show them the gleaming gems of India, gold and silver — that they may turn to my work — by these too I lead them away. ⁹When I show them fine clothing, white silk and red silk, brocade and fine linen, by these I lead them away; I return them to my thought. When I show them silver and cattle multiplied as the sand, by this too I return them to my work. ¹⁰Concerning women, anger and quarrel, prideful jealousy — when I show them these, by all this I return them to my way. ¹¹When I show them signs, I dwell in the mind of their neighbors; in their minds I cause a sign-matter to dwell of itself; I show them the sign of their word and lead them astray. ¹²To the people whom I have made my dwelling, I show signs — whether by the motion of stars, or by the rising of clouds, or by the flickering of fire, or by the cries of beasts and birds — they are dwellings; by all this I cause signs to dwell in their mind. ¹³They speak and give a sign to their neighbors; and as those diviners told them before, I become their sign. ¹⁴To the people who say to their neighbors, ‘There are no diviners like so-and-so and so-and-so — who, having examined them, give their wage; whose prophecies happen as they spoke; who distinguish evil and good; for whom all comes to pass as they spoke’ — for these, I make the sign of their word. ¹⁵That those who shall perish and those who err in me may utterly multiply, that the sons of Adam may perish with me — when they say this, I am glad. For when I said ‘I will not bow to my inferior,’ God for the sake of their father Adam humbled me from my glory. ¹⁶And I have a covenant with God my Creator: those whom I have deceived, who walk in my commandment, shall be cast with me into the fire. ¹⁷When I had multiplied my arrogance against him, when he had commanded that they bind me and cast me into Gehenna and the depth of Sheol, I petitioned my Lord. When my Creator had so commanded — ‘You have stirred my anger; you have rebuked me with your scourge; you have struck me with your wrath’ — I said, ‘O my Lord, permit me to speak one matter before you,’ and I petitioned in his presence. ¹⁸And my Lord said in reply: ‘Speak, I will hear you.’ At that time I began to petition him thus: ‘After I am humbled from my glory, let those whom I have deceived be with me in the affliction I receive. ¹⁹But those who refused me, who did not err in me, who do your commandment, who fulfill your will, who keep your word — those who would not keep my commandment, who refused me when I tried to teach them, who though I deceived them did not err in me — let them belong to your kingdom; let them take the crown you gave me when you loved me. ²⁰Give my crown to the authorities who were not banished with me and not called Satans; in my throne emptied of me and my armies, at your right hand place them. ²¹As you have desired, let them praise you; let them be as I and as my armies were. For you have hated me, and have loved those created from ash and earth; my authority has been overturned; their authority has been exalted; as you desire, let them praise you.’” ²²And my Lord said in reply: “Because, seeing and hearing my work, they have not loved me — but you — let them be according to your desire and your word. ²³If they have left my commandment and the words of the Scriptures and come to you, their destruction does not grieve me. You also, with those you have deceived — shall be punished with you in Gehenna. ²⁴Forever, for you and those who erred in you, there is no exit from the punishment of Gehenna; rather, forever in fire you shall be tormented.”

Chapter 2

¹“But you, who could not deceive my servant Job — by honor I will inherit your throne to those of them; those whom you could not deceive, I will give the Kingdom of Heaven — says God who rules all.” ²“And I [the Devil] shall deceive the sons of Adam in all things. If I can deceive them, I shall not leave them to stand firm in good work. I shall deceive all the sons of Adam; I shall make sweet to them the desire of the world. ³In loving food, in loving drink, in loving clothing — in loving matter, in giving and receiving; ⁴in loving hearing and sight; in loving touch and walking; in multiplying pride and matter; in loving sleep and dream; ⁵in multiplying drink and drunkenness; in multiplying blasphemy and anger; in speaking jest and joke; ⁶in slandering one’s neighbor in quarrel; in seeing the beautiful women of this world; in smelling the perfumes that lead astray — ⁷in all this I shall hurl them down, that they may not be saved. Through them, that they may enter with me into the destruction to which I was humbled from my throne, I shall lead them away from the way of God.” ⁸And the prophet said: “You destroyer and destroyed! In your arrogance and the hardness of your heart — by grieving your Creator and not praising your Creator — when you departed from God’s commandment and denied him, how do you exalt yourself thus over the creation of God? ⁹When your Creator was angry with you for your evil work, he cast you down. Why do you take the wretch whom your Creator created from earth and dust, whom he formed as he pleased, whom he set for his praise? ¹⁰You, the subtle one, whom he created from flame of fire and wind, when you exalted yourself, saying ‘I am the Creator’ — ¹¹and when you boasted, God saw your evil work; that his name might be praised without lack — that one might praise him in your stead — he created Adam. For you, with your armies, had denied God. ¹²And Adam and his children were created that they might praise the name of God in your stead — you and your armies who despised God on account of your arrogance — for you had exalted yourself above all the archangels. ¹³Therefore God separated you from all archangels like you and humbled you. You — who were created with one counsel together with your armies — for the unprofitable hardness of your mind and the arrogance of your thought, you departed from the praise of God; you erred; you exalted yourself, not against another, but against your Creator. ¹⁴Therefore — that he might be praised by the humble — he created Adam from the earth of the ground. He gave him commandment and law that he should not eat from the fruit of the fig. ¹⁵He appointed him over all he had created. He made known to him thus: ‘Eat from every tree in the Garden; but from the one tree which is the thorn of death, do not eat — lest you bring death upon yourself.’ ¹⁶And when you heard this word, upon Eve — who was found from Adam’s rib — you spat the venom of your mouth. ¹⁷That you might make her a law-breaker like yourself, by evil flattery you seized the innocent lamb. ¹⁸When you deceived Eve — who was created as a meek dove, who did not know your cunning — by your prepared matter and your perverse word, you caused her to deny [God]. And after you had deceived that first creature, she went and deceived God’s first earth-creation, Adam. ¹⁹In your pride, you added unbecoming uproar to him; you caused him to deny his Creator’s word; in your pride, you destroyed the poor one. ²⁰In your cunning, you separated him from his Creator’s love; through your contrivance, you brought him out of the Paradise of joy; through your stumbling-block, you caused him to leave the food of Paradise. ²¹In your falsehood, you made him thirst for the drink of Paradise. For from the beginning you have been opposed to the meek Adam — that you might bring him down to the Sheol where you receive your recompense — from his God who loves him, who brought him from non-existence into true existence. ²²Though he was earthly, in soul and flesh and mind he made him spiritual and rational — that he might honor and praise his Creator. ²³As the harp [praises] with many varied modes, he created for him ten Consciousnesses that praise.”

Chapter 3

¹“To you, your Creator created one mind, that you might constantly praise him as you were sent. ²But to Adam he gave ten thoughts — five evil and five good — together making ten thoughts. ³Furthermore — like the wave of the sea; like the whirlwind that lifts dust from the earth; like the sea-wave that the wind stirs — many thoughts disturb him; uncountable as the drops of rain, as the multitude of his thoughts in his heart — so is the thought of Adam. ⁴But your thought is one; you are not flesh; you have no other thought. ⁵But you dwelt in the serpent’s mind; the one-natured Adam you destroyed by evil flattery. Eve heard the serpent’s word; hearing, she did as he commanded her. ⁶And coming, she deceived Adam, the first creation of God, by making him eat the fruit of the fig. For transgressing her Creator’s commandment, she brought death upon herself and her children. ⁷By the true judgment of God, they went out of Paradise. But God, having driven them out, did not separate them from Paradise; rather, in the land to which they were sent, by the fruit of their womb and the fruit of their land, he consoled them. ⁸When in your jealousy you had caused them to be sent out of Paradise, God gave them green trees from Paradise — that they might plant and be consoled by the fruit of Paradise and the fruit of earth that God gave them — ⁹by seeing children, by seeing Paradise and the fruit which the earth brought forth from dust, that they might greatly gladden their hearts; when they ate of it, they were utterly consoled from the sorrow of having been expelled from Paradise. ¹⁰For God knows how to console his creation; by their children and by the fruit of the earth their hearts are settled. ¹¹For they are exiled to this land of thorn and bramble; by grain and water they strengthen their hearts.”

Chapter 4

¹And his [Adam’s] Lord said: “I shall redeem him; he shall shame you [the Devil]; from the wolf’s mouth he shall save the lamb. ²But you — leading those you have ruled with you — shall go to destruction. ³But those who keep their Creator God’s law — that he may make them his portion, that they may praise him with the holy angels who did not transgress their Creator God’s law as you did — these shall be glad with their Creator God, who has hidden them from your evil work. ⁴But you — when God, who had chosen you above all those like you, made you praise him together with the angels — in your arrogance you lost the high throne. ⁵You exalted yourself; you were called the Devil; your armies were called demons. ⁶But those who love God — like the holy angels — become his kindred. The Seraphim and Cherubim who praise him, with wings spread, praise without ceasing. ⁷But you — together with your kindred and armies created in your form, who were to praise him always — destroyed your praise through your pride and folly. ⁸Thinking that creation was impossible without you — when you forgot the praise of God your Creator — that the praise of God who created you as a tenth tribe might not be lacking — when you separated yourself from the unity of your brothers, that the praise of God might not be lacking, ⁹when in the arrogance of your mind you neglected the praise of God your Creator — when he was angry with you and mocked you, when together with your armies he expelled you to the grinding of Gehenna — ¹⁰with his holy hands he took earth from the ground; he added water and fire and wind; and he created Adam in his image and likeness. ¹¹That his praise might be filled by your deficiency, he appointed him over all the creation he had made with his hand. The earthly praise was joined to the heavenly praise; their praise became equal. ¹²But you — through your pride and your hardness of neck — were banished; you went out from the lordship of God who created you; you destroyed yourself. ¹³That his Godhead’s praise might not be lacking, God by the counsel of his will created the one who praises him. Know that his praise shall not be lacking. ¹⁴For he knows all before it is done; he knew that you would break his commandment before he created you. Before the world was made, the counsel was hidden with him; when you denied him, he created his servant Adam in his image and likeness. ¹⁵As Solomon said: ‘Before the hills he begot me; before the world was made firm; before the foundation of the earth was laid; ¹⁶before the prop of mountains and hills was planted; before the way of the world was established; before the light of sun and moon shone; before the food of stars and seasons was known; ¹⁷before night and day alternated; before the sea was bounded with sand; before all created creation was created; ¹⁸before all that is seen today was seen; before all the name that is called today was called — he begot me.’ So also, you and the angels like you, and his servant Adam, were within the consciousness of God. ¹⁹When you denied [him], that his holy name might be praised — that he might be praised in his servant Adam who was humbled, whom he created from earth — when you exalted yourself, he created Adam. ²⁰For God hears the prayer of the poor from afar; God loves the praise of humbled people. ²¹God disregards the matter of the proud; he does not love the strength of the horse; he is not glad in the strength of a man. ²²But God is glad in those who fear him and cry out weeping for their sin. ²³You — you could not confess in repentance. ²⁴But that earthly one [Adam], weeping greatly before God for his sin, returned in repentance. ²⁵You — in the pride of your heart and the hardness of your neck — did not know the way of peace; you did not know repentance; in repentance, weeping, and tears you could not confess before your Creator God. ²⁶But that poor one of ash and earth returned with weeping and tears to the way of repentance, peace, and humility. ²⁷You — to God who created you, you did not humble yourself or the inner husk of your heart. ²⁸But he, having transgressed his transgression, humbled himself and confessed; he did not exalt himself. ²⁹And that error — he did not create it; it came from you. You created the crime and brought it out; in your pride, you took him with you to your destruction. ³⁰For he knew both of you before he created you; he knew your walk; he knows that this was done in the pride of your heart. ³¹But that one — without the cunning of pride — he returned through repentance, weeping, and tears. ³²You — in the pride of your heart — could not confess in repentance. The man who sins and does not confess in repentance makes his sin worse than his former transgression. ³³But the man who sins and confesses and weeps before his Creator God — he has truly repented; that he might soften his Lord’s heart, he has found the way of salvation; before his Lord he confesses; his Lord eases what he had counseled to be angry over the servant; in much repentance and prostration he has confessed; his former sin is forgiven. ³⁴If he does not return to his previous transgression — if he does this — this is complete repentance. And Adam did not forget remembering his Creator and confessing to his Creator. ³⁵You also — confess to your Creator in repentance; multiply not transgression against him and against the work of his hand. For they are flesh and blood; God who created them knows their weakness. ³⁶After their soul is separated, their flesh becomes dust until the day God shall please.”

Chapter 5

¹Know your Creator; do not forget the Holy One of Israel who has strengthened you and saved you. When you were earth, he created you in his image and likeness — that you might be glad, he set you in Paradise to till the ground. ²When you transgressed his commandment, he brought you out from Paradise into this land cursed for your sake, which brings forth bramble and thorn. ³For you are earth, and she is earth; you are dust, and she is dust; you are ground, and she is ground. From her you eat; to her you return; you become dust until he wills to raise you. For he shall examine all the iniquity and sin you have done. ⁴Know what you shall answer in that time. Remember the evil and good you have done in this world; weigh and consider whether the evil is greater or the good is greater. ⁵If you have multiplied good, it shall be well with you, that you may rejoice and exult on the day the dead rise. ⁶But if you have multiplied evil, woe to you! As your hands’ work and your heart’s wickedness, you shall receive your recompense — as you have done evil to your neighbor, as you have not feared God — as your work, you shall receive your recompense. ⁷If you have betrayed your neighbor — if you have sworn falsely in the name of God — as your work, you shall receive your recompense. ⁸Pretending to your neighbor, you make your false word seem true; but you yourself know that you have spoken falsehood. ⁹Convincing those with you, you firm up your word as truth; you multiply what is not true; as your work, you shall receive your recompense. Saying “I will give you what I do not give,” you betray your neighbor. ¹⁰When in pure heart you said “I will give,” demons surround you like dogs; they make you forget all things; whether you rise to give or wish to give — the wealth of this world makes you covet, that you may fatten yourself on wealth which does not profit you and which you cannot eat. For he has said: “They gather; and do not know for whom they gather.” ¹¹Again — “the lying sons of Adam make the balance false; they go always from vanity to vanity” — as he has said. ¹²O people — by tampering with the balance and the weight-stone; by stealing the wealth of others and by violence adding to your own wealth; by trespassing on your neighbor’s property and field; by making for yourselves the profit that does not belong to your neighbor — do not place your hope in violence. ¹³If you do this, as your work you shall receive. ¹⁴O people — eat fittingly by the work of your hand; do not trust in plunder. By unfitting, judgment-less seizing and snatching, do not love to eat another’s wealth. ¹⁵Though you eat it, it does not satisfy you; though you fatten on it, in the time of your death you leave it to another; it does not profit you. ¹⁶Though your wealth abounds, do not be proud in mind. The wealth of sinners is like the smoke from a furnace which the wind takes; a little wealth in truth is better than much wealth of sinners.

Chapter 6

¹Remember the day of your death; when your souls are separated from your bodies, when you leave your wealth to another, when you go to a way you do not know — think of what comes upon you. ²Those who receive you are evil; in form they are misshapen; in their fierceness they terrify; they do not hear your word, and you do not hear their word. ³Because you did not do the will of God your God, when you petition them, they do not answer you; for this reason they terrify you greatly. ⁴Demons fear them — but to people who fulfill God’s will, there is no fear in them. The demons mock the souls of sinners. ⁵Because they despised this world — for this greatly gladdens them — the souls of righteous people rejoice at the chant of angels. But the souls of sinners — evil angels receive them. ⁶To settle the souls of the righteous, angels of mercy are sent from God; they receive the souls of the righteous and good. But evil demons receive the souls of sinners — sent from the Devil that they may mock the souls of sinners. ⁷Sinners, woe to you! Before the day of your death reaches you, weep for yourselves; after your death, the time that has passed does not return. ⁸Rather, before your time has passed — while you are still here — enter repentance, that when you arrive before God’s face you may dwell without affliction and without disease, in joy. ⁹Lest the worthless will that estranges you from God draw you away — let there not be found in you sharp reproach and luxurious living, the love of food and pleasure. For a body sated beyond measure does not remember the name of God; rather the spirit of the Devil dwells in it, not the spirit of life. ¹⁰As Moses said: “Jacob ate and was satisfied; he grew fat, he grew thick, he grew broad; he abandoned God who created him; ¹¹and his life departed from God.” For unmeasured gorging of the belly is to be like an untamed horse; for unmeasured eating and drinking and adultery is to be like a wild pig of the desert. ¹²But the one who eats with measure is firm on the foundation of God; like the cornerstone, like a fortified wall, he stands firm. For it is said: “The sinner flees when no one pursues him.” ¹³But the righteous lives bounding like a lion. ¹⁴But people who do not love God do not keep his word; their mind is not straight. ¹⁵And God — that, while they are on earth, they may not rest — by trembling and fear, by the seizing of their wealth, by countless many afflictions held — bound in chains from the hand of their lords — ¹⁶lest they be at rest from the affliction, lest their dwelling be in peace, in various terrifying afflictions, brings sorrow and panic upon them.

Chapter 7

¹As David said: “In God I have trusted; I will not fear; what shall man do to me?” — In people who trust in God there is no fear or panic. ²Again he said: “Though warriors should surround me, in him I trusted; one thing I asked of God; that I seek; he who trusted in him shall live forever; from evil he shall not fear.” ³Who is the man who trusted in God and was put to shame? Who is the one God has called and rejected? ⁴“Those who love me, I will love; those who honor me, I will honor; those who turn to me, I will keep” — he has said. Who is the man who has hoped in him and been put to shame? ⁵Save the body of the widow; from all who oppose you with evil, save them — that God may save you. Protect them; after you, he shall protect your children. For the children of the righteous are blessed; they give from their excess; they do not lack grain.

Chapter 8

¹Job trusted in God; for he did not neglect to praise God his Creator — [God] saved him from all the affliction the Devil, enemy of the sons of Adam, brought upon him. In the affliction that came upon him, he did not grieve his heart. Rather he said: “The LORD gave; the LORD has taken; the LORD has done as he wished; in all things, in heaven and earth, let the name of the LORD be praised.” ²When God saw that Job’s heart was pure, God received him with much glory. ³He gave him wealth more abundant than his former wealth; for he had become very patient — because he endured all the affliction that came upon him, he healed him of his wound. ⁴So also you — if you endure the enemies sent to you, you become blessed. ⁵Endure! Lest because of the affliction that has come upon you from people who hate you, you grieve your mind — that, for you and after you for your children and your children’s children, he may be a refuge to you. ⁶Trust him; he shall be your refuge. Call upon him; he shall hear you. Hope in him; he shall pardon you. Petition him; he shall be a father to you. ⁷Remember Esther and Mordecai, Judith and Gideon, Barak and Deborah, Samson and Jephthah — ⁸and others like them, who hardened themselves to trust in God; whose enemies did not overcome them. ⁹For God is true; he does not show partiality of face. Those who chose to do evil against them — they received evil. But all those who fear him and do righteousness — he keeps their souls; he gives them honor and intimacy. ¹⁰In their going in and coming out, in their death and their life, in their sitting and their rising — he gladdens them. For he saves and he kills. ¹¹He strikes; he pardons. ¹²He makes poor; he makes rich; he humbles; he glorifies.

Chapter 9

¹Whether in heaven or on earth, whether the subtle or the solid — all is his; all by his ordinance stands and abides. ²None transgresses the law and commandment of the Creator of the whole world; the path of the eagle that flies in heaven — to where he wills, he commands his going. ³The way of the serpent in the rock — where he wills, he commands him. The way of a ship in the midst of the sea — none knows its way except God alone. ⁴Whether the soul of the righteous or the soul of the sinner, after she is separated from her flesh — none knows the way the soul takes except God alone. ⁵Whether she goes around in the wilderness or on the mountain — who knows where she goes? Whether she flies like a bird; whether she descends upon the cleft of the mountain; whether she becomes like the dew of Hermon; ⁶whether she becomes like the whirlwind; whether she becomes like lightning that straightens her path; ⁷whether she becomes like the stars that shine over the deep; whether she becomes like the sand of the seashore heaped in the midst of the deep; ⁸whether she becomes like the cornerstone fixed on the edge of the sea’s depth; whether she becomes like a tree planted by the water-channels that gives lovely fruit; ⁹whether the sun’s heat burns her, and the wind picks her up and carries her to another place where she does not sprout — whose trace is not found, becoming like grass; whose trace is not found, becoming like mist of urine — who knows? ¹⁰Who knows the way of God? Who are his counselors? With whom does he take counsel? ¹¹For the thought of God is hidden from man; who pursues his trace? ¹²Who can examine God’s counsel and his wisdom? For he founded the earth on the water; he established her without a peg; in his complete wisdom, he firmed up the heaven on the wind; he stretched out the male-water [oceans] like a tent. ¹³And he commanded the clouds to rain rain upon the earth; he causes grass to grow, and countless fruits — that they might be food for man, that we might rejoice in God together. ¹⁴God gives to the sons of men all his blessing, his joy, and his satisfaction — this is that they may be sated and praise God who gave them from the fruit of the earth. ¹⁵The lovely garment he has put on them; all the desired blessing; the joy and gladness given to those who fulfill the will of God — he gives them. ¹⁶And to those who keep the commandment of God — in the dwelling he prepared for their fathers in heaven — he gives glory and beloved-ness and gladness. ¹⁷To those who lived in his worship and his judgment — who kept his law and sought his ordinance, who kept and provided for them, who raised and honored them, who did not depart from his commandment — he gives glory and grace. And I — by causing their enemies to weaken, by guarding their bodies — saw what God does for his beloved in this world. ¹⁸All things, as they ask, he gives them, and fulfills their will. Do not depart from God’s commandment; fulfill the will of God. ¹⁹Lest he be angry with you, lest in one moment he destroy you, lest in his wrath he strike you, lest you go out from the inheritance of your fathers where you formerly were, lest your dwelling forever be Gehenna where there is no exit — do not depart from his commandment and his law. ²⁰When you stand before God, that your work may be good — while your soul is not separated from your flesh — keep the will of God your Creator. ²¹For the kingdom of heaven and earth is his alone; almighty power and kingship are his; mercy and pardon are his alone. ²²He makes rich; he makes poor; he humbles; he honors. ²³And David said concerning him: “Man is like vanity; his days pass like a shadow. ²⁴O Lord, but you abide forever; the calling of your name is to generation upon generation.” ²⁵Again he said: “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your rule is to generation upon generation” — you have taken kingship from Saul and given it to David. ²⁶But you — there is no one who appoints you; there is no one able to depose you; there is no one able to see you; but you — you see all. ²⁷Your kingdom — for generation upon generation, forever, is not deposed; there is none who rules him; but he — he rules all; sees all. ²⁸That they may praise him without doubt and with straight mind know his worship — that they may not be those who, instead of God alone who created them, provided for them, honored them, raised them — bow down to other gods — for he created man in his image and likeness; he examines heart and reins. ²⁹But they refuse to worship God who created them; to stone and wood, and to silver and gold made by human hand, they bow down. ³⁰And they sacrifice to them, until the smoke of their sacrifice rises to heaven there to stand before God; he shall accuse them of all the sin they have done in their idolatry. ³¹They did not keep the commandment of God they had been taught. Rather they learned idol-worship, every defiling work that is not fitting; astrology and divination and idolatry; evil will and every work God does not love. ³²That they might be praised in the presence of God and his angels — that they might save their bodies from sin and iniquity — because they did not love to praise God — for lack of good work they do all this. ³³When all together are raised from the tomb where they were buried and where their bones decayed, their soul stands naked before God; the soul shall dwell in the houses of light prepared for the good. ³⁴But the soul of sinners shall dwell in darkness. When the tombs open, the bodies rise; the souls return to the bodies from which they were first separated. ³⁵Naked, as they were born naked, they stand before God; the sin they have done from their infancy unto that time shall be revealed. ³⁶They shall bear their sin on their shoulder; whether little or much sin they have done, as they have done, so they shall receive.

Chapter 10

¹If you have not believed the resurrection of the dead, hear how, in winter, unborn souls rise; for the Spirit of God, breathed upon them as before, rests upon them. ²And to die, by his word, he commanded them aforetime. ³Their flesh decaying, as he wills they rise; again they are renewed. ⁴Again, when rain falls and saturates the earth, they rise; as was prepared from of old, they live. ⁵Those that live by living-soul; all that moves on earth, and all that water brings forth — he commanded, and they were created. For the Spirit of God hovered over the water; by his Spirit and his word he gives them living-soul. ⁶You blind-of-heart, who say “the dead do not rise” — look: by his Spirit and his word, without father and mother, they are created. If you have wisdom, how do you say that the dead are not raised by the word of God their Creator? ⁷Repent, and return to your faith. For the dead — who in the grave have become ash and dust — by the word of God shall rise. ⁸As his word formerly said, by the dew of pardon from God they rise; that word, encompassing all, raises the dead as he wills. ⁹Know that, raised, you shall stand before him; do not think according to your thought that you remain in the grave. ¹⁰It is not so — but as you have done on earth, whether good or evil, raised, you shall receive your wage; for it is the day of recompense. ¹¹At the resurrection, in all the sin you have done, you shall receive your recompense; from your infancy to that time, the written debt of yours you shall complete; you have no excuse — as in the work of this world — by which to deny your sin. ¹²As you make your false word seem true to your face, as you make the false thing you have spoken seem true — there you have no excuse by which to plead. ¹³For she [the soul] — knowing all the evil you have done — shall reveal you before God her Creator; for the word of God dwelling in you shall speak against you. ¹⁴And there, for the sin you have done, you shall be ashamed. That you may be praised with those who are praised for their good work — not be ashamed on the day of judgment before the angels and people — hasten here to enter into repentance before you arrive there. ¹⁵Those who praise God with the angels receive their wage from their Creator without shame; they are glad. But while you are alive in your flesh, if you have not done good work, you have no portion with the righteous. ¹⁶When you had knowledge — when you had wage and market — you did not prepare yourself. When you had wealth, you did not give a morsel to the hungry — worthless repentance shall be yours. ¹⁷When you had clothing, you did not clothe the naked; when you had authority, you did not save the oppressed. ¹⁸When you had knowledge, you did not teach the sinner — that he might return and enter repentance; that God might forgive the sin he had done in ignorance. When you had strength, with which to overcome — you did not fight the demons who war against you. ¹⁹When you had firmness, that you might weaken the strength of your infancy that is in flesh, that you might subject yourself to righteousness, not to please the flesh in the world — you did not fast; you did not pray. ²⁰Not in worldly joy, in sweet foods and excellent drink — not in fine clothing or adornment with gold and silver — ²¹not in honored gems of India, in topaz and emerald: this is not the fitting adornment of man. ²²For man — his adornment is purity, wisdom, and knowledge; without jealousy and without envy; without doubt and without quarrel; loving one another fittingly. ²³Loving your neighbor as yourself, not returning evil for evil to the man who has done evil to you — that you may enter into the dwelling given to those who have endured affliction; that, with those who have inherited the holy land by patience and knowledge, hoping for the Kingdom of Heaven at the resurrection, your wage may be given to you. ²⁴“After we die, we shall not rise” — do not say this. For the Devil makes those who say and think this lose hope, that at the resurrection they may not be saved. When the resurrection has reached them, they shall know. People who have done sin in ignorance — at the resurrection they shall utterly grieve, because they did not believe that on that day they would rise. He shall hold their sin against them. ²⁵Therefore, for the work they did on earth — for its evil — they shall be reproached; the resurrection by which they rise in flesh together — which they denied — they shall see. ²⁶Because they did not order their work well, they shall weep then. If they could — that they might not be those who weep there — if they had wept in this world, it would have been better for them. ²⁷If here, by our will, we do not weep — there, against our will, they shall make us weep. If here we do not prepare repentance — there, worthless and unprofitable shouting and weeping we shall prepare. ²⁸That you may pass over from death to life — from this passing world to the Kingdom of Heaven above — from this earthly light to the heavenly light — prepare good work. ²⁹That with the people who believe the resurrection of the dead, in the Kingdom of Heaven in unending joy, you may be glad — refuse the joy that is on earth. From today and unto eternity. Amen.