LXXXIII. LXXXIV. First Dream-Vision on the Deluge.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Charles, R. H. (Robert Henry)
LXXXIII.
1. And now, my son Methuselah, I will show thee all my visions which I have seen, recounting them before thee.
2. Two visions I saw before I took a wife, and the one was quite unlike the other: the first when I was learning to write, the second before I took thy mother, (when) I saw a terrible vision. And regarding them I prayed to the Lord.
3. I had laid me down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, (when) I saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth.
4. And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss.
5. And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: ‘The earth is destroyed.’
6. And my grandfather Mahalalel waked me as I lay near him, and said unto me: ‘Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou make such lamentation?’
7. And I recounted to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said unto me: ‘A terrible thing hast thou seen, my son, and of grave moment is thy dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction.
8. And now, my son, arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since thou art a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the whole earth.
9. My son, from heaven all this will come upon the earth, and upon the earth there will be great destruction.’
10. After that I arose and prayed and implored and besought, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, and I will show everything to thee, my son Methuselah.
11. And when I had gone forth below and seen the heaven, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as †He had known† it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgement and extolled Him because He had made the sun to go forth from the windows of the east, †and he ascended and rose on the face of the heaven, and set out and kept traversing the path shown unto him.
LXXXIV. 1. And I lifted up my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One, and spake with the breath of my mouth, and with the tongue of flesh, which God has made for the children of the flesh of men, that they should speak therewith, and He gave them breath and a tongue and a mouth that they should speak therewith:
2. ‘Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King,
Great and mighty in Thy greatness,
Lord of the whole creation of the heaven,
King of kings and God of the whole world.
And Thy power and kingship and greatness abide for ever and ever,
And throughout all generations Thy dominion:
And all the heavens are Thy throne for ever,
And the whole earth Thy footstool for ever and ever.
3. For Thou hast made and Thou rulest all things,
And nothing is too hard for Thee,
Wisdom departs not from the place of Thy throne,
Nor turns away from Thy presence.
And Thou knowest and seest and hearest everything,
And there is nothing hidden from Thee [for Thou seest everything].
4. And now the angels of Thy heavens are guilty of trespass,
And upon the flesh of men abideth Thy wrath until the great day of judgement.
5. And now, O God and Lord and Great King,
I implore and beseech Thee to fulfil my prayer,
To leave me a posterity on earth,
And not to destroy all the flesh of man,
And make the earth without inhabitant,
So that there should be an eternal destruction.
6. And now, my Lord, destroy from the earth the flesh which has aroused Thy wrath,
But the flesh of righteousness and uprightness establish as a plant of the eternal seed,
And hide not Thy face from the prayer of Thy servant, O Lord.’