CHAP. XVI.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Al are admonished, that extreme calamities shal fal vpon this world, 36. the penitent returning to iustice shal escape, 55. & as al thinges were made by Gods omnipotent powre at his wil, so al thinges shal serue to the reward of the blessed, and punishment of the wicked.
VVOE to thee Babylon & Asia, woe to thee AEgypt, and Syria. 2 Gird yourselues with sackclothes and shirtes of heare, & mourne for your children, & be sorie: because your destruction is at hand. 3 The sword is sent in vpon you, and who is he that can turne it away? 4 Fire is sent in vpon you, and who is he that can quench it? 5 Euiles are sent in vpon you, and who is he that can repel them? 6 Shal anie man repel the lion being hungrie in the woode, or quench the fire in stubble, forthwith when it beginneth to burne? 7 Shal anie man repel the arrow shot of a strong archer? 8 Our strong Lord sendeth in euiles, and who is he that can repel them? 9 Fire came forth from his wrath, and who is he that can quench it? 10 He wil lighten, who shal not feare, he wil thunder, and who shal not be afrayed? 11 Our Lord wil threaten, and who shal not vtterly be destroyed before his face? 12 The earth hath trembled, and the fundations thereof, the sea tosseth vp waues from the depth, and the floudes of it shal be destroyed, and the fishes thereof at the face of our Lord, and at the glorie of his powre: 13 because his right hand is strong which bendeth the bow, his arrowes be sharpe that are shot of him, they shal not misse, when they shal begine to be shot into the endes of the earth. 14 Behold euiles are sent, and they shal not returne til they come vpon the earth. 15 The fire is kindled and it shal not be quenched, til it consume the fundations of the earth. 16 For as the arrow shot of a strong archer returneth not, so shal not the euils returne backe, that shal be sent vpon the earth. 17
Woe is me, woe is me: who shal deliuer me in those dayes? 18 The beginning of sorrowes and much mourning, the beginning of famine and much destruction. The beginning of warres and the potestates shal feare, the beginning of euiles and al shal tremble. 19 In these what shal I doe, when the euils shal come? 20 Behold famine, and plague, and tribulation, and distresse are sent al as scourges for amendment, 21 and in al these they wil not conuert themselues from their iniquities, neither wil they be alwayes mindful of the scourges. 22 Behold, there shal be good cheape victuals vpon the earth, so that they may thinke that peace is directly coming toward them, and then shal euiles spring vpon the earth, sword, famine, and great confusion. 23 For by famine manie that inhabit the earth shal dye, and the sword shal destroy the rest that remained aliue of the famine, 24 and the dead shal be cast forth as dung, and there shal be none to comfort them. For the earth shal be left desert, and the cities therof shal be throwen downe. 25 There shal not be left a man to til the ground and to sow it. 26 The trees shal yeeld fruites, and who shal gather them? 27 The grape shal become ripe, & who shal tread it?
For there shal be great desolation to places. 28 For a man shal desire to see a man, or to heare his voyce. 29 For there shal be leaft ten of a citie, and two of the field that haue hid themselues in thicke woodes, and cliffes of rockes. 30 As there are left in the oliuet, and on euerie tree, three of foure oliues. 31 Or as in a vinyeard when it is gathered there are grapes left by them, that diligently search the vineyard: 32 so shal there be left in those dayes three or foure, by them that search their houses in the sword. 33 And the earth shal be left desolate, and the fildes thereof shal waxe old, & the wayes thereof, and al the pathes thereof shal bringforth thornes, because no man shal passe by it. 34 Virgins shal mourne hauing no bridegromes, wemen shal mourne hauing no husbandes, their daughters shal mourne hauing no helpe: 35 their bridegromes shal be consumed in battel, and their husbandes be destroyed in famine. 36 But heare these thinges, and know them ye seruantes of our Lord. 37 Behold the word of our Lord, receiue it: beleue not the goddes of whom our Lord speaketh. 38 Behold the euiles approch, and slacke not. 39 As a woman with childe when shee bringeth forth her child in the ninth moneth, the houre of her deliuerance approching, two or three howres before, paines come about her wombe, and the infants coming out of her wombe, they wil not tarrie one moment. 40 So the euiles shal not slacke to come forth vpon the earth, and the world shal lament, and sorowes shal hold it round about. 41 Heare the word, my people: prepare yourselues vnto the fight, & in the
euiles so be ye as strangers of the earth. 42 He that selleth as if he should flee, and he that byeth as he that should lose it. 43 He that playeth the marchant, as he that should take no fruite: and he that buildeth as he that should not inhabite. 44 He that soweth, as he that shal not reape: so he also that pruneth a vinyeard, as if he should not haue the vintage. 45 They that marie so as if they should not get children, & they that marie not, so as if were widowes. 46 Wherfore they that labour, labour without cause: 47 for foreners shal reape their fruites, & shal violently take their goodes, and ouerthrow their houses, and lead theire children captiue, because in captiuitie, and famine they beget their children. 48 And they that play the marchantes by robrie, the longer they adorne their cities and houses, and their possessions and persons: 49 so much the more wil I be zealous toward them, vpon their sinnes, sayth our Lord. 50 As a whore enuieth an honest & very good woman: 51 so shal iustice hate impietie when she adorneth herselfe, and accuseth her to her face, when he shal come that may defend him that searcheth out al vpon the earth. 52 Therefore be not made like to her, nor to her workes. 53 For yet a little whyle & iniquitie shal be taken away from the earth, & iustice shal reigne ouer you. 54 Let not the sinner say he hath not sinned: because he shal burne coales of fire vpon his head, that sayth I haue not sinned before our Lord God and his glorie. 55 Behold our Lord shal know al the workes of men, and their inuentions, & their cogitations, and their hartes.
(Eccli 23 / Luke 16) 56 For he sayd: Let the earth be made, and it was made: let the heauen be made, & it was made. (Gen 1) 57 And by his worde the starrs were made, & he noweth the number of the starres. (Ps 146:4) 58 Who searcheth the depth and the treasures therof: who hath measured the sea, & capacitie therof. (Job 38) 59 Who hath shut vp the sea in the midest of waters, & hath hanged the earth vpon the waters with his word. 60 Who hath spred heauen as it were a vault, ouer the waters he hath founded it. 61 Who hath put fountaines of waters in the desert, and lakes vpon the toppes of mountaines, to send forth riuers from the high rocke to watter the earth. 62 Who made man & put his hart in the midds of the bodie, and gaue him spirit, life and vnderstanding. 63 And the inspiration of God omnipotent that made al thinges, and searcheth al hid thinges, in the secretes of the earth. 64 He knoweth your inuention, and what you thinke in your hartes sinning, and willing to hide your sinnes. 65 Wherfore our Lord in searching hath searched al your workes, and he wil put you al to open shame, 66 and you shal be confounded when your sinnes shal come forth before men, and the iniquities shal be they, that shal stand accusers in that day. 67 What wil you doe? or how shal you hide your sinnes before God and his Angels? 68 Behold God is the Iudge, feare him.
Cease from your sinnes, and now forget your iniquities to doe them anie more, & God wil bring you out, and deliuer you from al tribulation. 69 For behold the heate of a great multitude is kindled ouer you, and they shal take certaine of you by violence, & shal make the slaine to be meate for idols. 70 And they that shal consent vnto them, shal be to them in derision, and in reproch, and in conculcation. 71 For there shal be place against places, and against the next cities great insurrection vpon them that feare our Lord. 72 They shal be as it were madde sparing no bodie, to spoyle and waste yet them that feare our Lord. 73 because they shal waste and spoyle the goodes, and shal cast them out of their houses. 74 Then shal appeare the probation of mine elect, as gold that is proued by the fire. 75 Heare be beloued, sayth our Lord: Behold the dayes of tribulation are come: and out of them I wil deliuer you. 76 Doe not feare, nor stagger, because God is your guide. 77 And he that kepeth my commandmentes, and precepts, sayth our Lord God: Let not your sinnes ouerway you, nor your inquities be aduanced ouer you. 78 Woe to them that are entangled with their sinnes, and are couered with their iniquities, as a filde is entangled with the wood, & the path therof couered with thornes, by which no man passeth, & it is closed out, & cast to be deuoured of the fire.
FINIS.
Note: This translation comes from the Latin text, usually printed in an appendix to editions of the Vulgate, but these editions miss seventy verses between 7:35 and 7:36. The missing fragment was discovered in a Latin manuscript by Robert Lubbock Bensly in 1874. Below is a translation of this fragment from a revised Authorized Version. Although often numbered 7:36-7:105, they are here number as A:1-A:70 to avoid any repetition in chapter:verse designations.
A:
1. And the pit of torment shall appear, and over against it shall be the place of rest: and the furnace of hell shall be shewed, and over against it the paradise of delight. A:
2. And then shall the Most High say to the nations that are raised from the dead, See ye and understand whom ye have denied, or whom ye have not served, or whose commandments ye have despised. A:
3. Look on this side and on that: here is delight and rest, and there fire and torments. Thus shall he speak unto them in the day of judgement: A:
4. This is a day that hath neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, A:5. neither cloud, nor thunder, nor lightning, neither wind, nor water, nor air, neither darkness, nor evening, nor morning, A:6. neither summer, nor spring, nor heat, nor winter, neither frost, nor cold, nor hail, nor rain, nor dew, A:7. neither noon, nor night, nor dawn, neither shining, nor brightness, nor light, save only the splendour of the glory of the Most High, whereby all shall see the things that are set before them: A:8. for it shall endure as it were a week of years. A:
9. This is my judgement and the ordinance thereof; but to thee only have I shewed these things. A:
10. And I answered, I said even then, O Lord, and I say now: Blessed are they that be now alive and keep the statutes ordained of thee. A:
11. But as touching them for whom my prayer was made, what shall I say? for who is there of them that be alive that hath not sinned, and who of the sons of men that hath not transgressed thy covenant? A:
12. And now I see, that the world to come shall bring delight to few, but torments unto many. A:
13. For an evil heart hath grown up in us, which hath led us astray from these statutes, and hath brought us into corruption and into the ways of death, hath shewed us the paths of perdition and removed us far from life; and that, not a few only, but well nigh all that have been created. A:
14. And he answered me, and said, Hearken unto me, and I will instruct thee; and I will admonish thee yet again: A:15. for this cause the Most High hath not made one world, but two. A:
16. For whereas thou hast said that the just are not many, but few, and the ungodly abound, hear the answer thereunto. A:
17. If thou have choice stones exceeding few, wilt thou set for thee over against them according to their number things of lead and clay? A:
18. And I say, Lord, how shall this be? A:
19. And he said unto me, Not only this, but ask the earth, and she shall tell thee; intreat her, and she shall declare unto thee. A:
20. For thou shalt say unto her, Thou bringest forth gold and silver and brass, and iron also and lead and clay: A:21. but silver is more abundant than gold, and brass than silver, and iron than brass, lead than iron, and clay than lead. A:
22. Judge thou therefore which things are precious and to be desired, whatso is abundant or what is rare. A:
23. And I said, O Lord that bearest rule, that which is plentiful is of less worth, for that which is more rare is more precious. A:
24. And he answered me, and said, Weigh within thyself the things that thou hast thought, for he that hath what is hard to get rejoiceth over him that hath what is plentiful. A:
25. So also is the judgement which I have promised: for I will rejoice over the few that shall be saved, inasmuch as these are they that have made my glory now to prevail, and of whom my name is now named. A:
26. And I will not grieve over the multitude of them that perish; for these are they that are now like unto vapour, and are become as flame and smoke; they are set on fire and burn hotly, and are quenched. A:
27. And I answered and said, O thou earth, wherefore hast thou brought forth, if the mind is made out of dust, like as all other created things? A:
28. For it were better that the dust itself had been unborn, so that the mind might not have been made therefrom. A:
29. But now the mind groweth with us, and by reason of this we are tormented, because we perish and know it. A:
30. Let the race of men lament and the beasts of the field be glad; let all that are born lament, but let the fourfooted beasts and the cattle rejoice. A:
31. For it is far better with them than with us; for they look not for judgement, neither do they know of torments or of salvation promised unto them after death. A:
32. For what doth it profit us, that we shall be preserved alive, but yet be afflicted with torment? A:
33. For all that are born are defiled with iniquities, and are full of sins and laden with offences: A:34. and if after death we were not to come into judgement, peradventure it had been better for us. A:
35. And he answered me, and said, When the Most High made the world, and Adam and all them that came of him, he first prepared the judgement and the things that pertain unto the judgement. A:
36. And now understand from thine own words, for thou hast said that the mind groweth with us. A:
37. They therefore that dwell upon the earth shall be tormented for this reason, that having understanding they have wrought iniquity, and receiving commandments have not kept them, and having obtained a law they dealt unfaithfully with that which they received. A: