CHAP. LXXXII. [SECT. XVI.[191]]
Richard Laurence translation
CHAP. LXXXII. [SECT. XVI.[191]]
1. And now I have shown thee, my son Mathusala, every sight which I saw prior to thy birth.[192] I will relate another vision, which I saw before I was married; they resemble each other.
2. The first was when I was learning a book; and the other before I was married to thy mother. I saw a potent vision;
3. And on account of these things besought the Lord.
4. I was lying down in the house of my grandfather Malalel, when I saw in a vision heaven purifying, and snatched away.
5. And falling to the earth, I saw likewise the earth absorbed by a great abyss; and mountains suspended over mountains.
6. Hills were sinking upon hills, lofty trees were gliding[193] off from their trunks, and were in the act of being projected, and of sinking into the abyss.
7. Being alarmed at these things, my voice faltered.[194] I cried out and said, The earth is destroyed. Then my grandfather Malalel raised me 119up, and said to me: Why dost thou thus cry out, my son? and wherefore dost thou thus lament?
8. I related to him the whole vision which I had seen. He said to me, Confirmed is that which thou hast seen, my son;
9. And potent the vision of thy dream respecting every secret sin of the earth. Its substance shall sink into the abyss, and a great destruction take place.
10. Now, my son, rise up; and beseech the Lord of glory (for thou art faithful), that a remnant may be left upon earth, and that he would not wholly destroy it. My son, all this calamity upon earth comes down from heaven;[195] upon earth shall there be a great destruction.
11. Then I arose, prayed, and entreated; and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, explaining everything to my son Mathusala.
12. When I went out below, and looking up to heaven, beheld the sun proceeding from the east, the moon descending to the west, a few scattered stars, and everything which God[196] has known from the beginning, I blessed the Lord of judgment, and magnified him: because he hath sent forth the sun from the chambers[197] of the east; that, ascending and rising in the face of heaven, it might spring up, and pursue the path which has been pointed out to it.
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